Minnesota Golden Gophers volleyball is the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

women's volleyball team at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. The program began its first season in 1972 under head coach Dee Jilek. Its current head coach is

Keegan Cook Robert Keegan Cook (born July 9, 1985), known as Keegan Cook, is an American volleyball coach. He began his coaching career at his alma mater, Saint Mary's College of California, Saint Mary's, where he was on the staff in various assistant coac ...

, who took over the team at the conclusion of the 2022 season, following the resignation of Hugh McCutcheon. Previous coach Mike Hebert had led the Golden Gophers to every NCAA Tournament, with the exception of 1998, when he was head coach of the team. His tenure was highlighted by back-to-back NCAA Final Four appearances in 2003 and 2004. Hebert also led Minnesota the program's first

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

title in 2002.

History

2003

Even with a 13 overall tournament seed, Minnesota beat

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

in the regional final in five sets to advance to the school's first NCAA Final Four. In the national semifinals, Minnesota played top ranked and undefeated

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

tough, but fell in three sets. Minnesota was led by Cassie Busse with 23 kills and Erin Martin with 11.

2004

The tournament's #4 overall seed, Minnesota defeated fifth-seeded

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

in the regional final to advance to their second straight national semifinal. Once again, they met Southern California, but the outcome was different than the previous year. Behind 18 kills from Minnesota's Erin Martin, the Golden Gophers defeated the two-time defending NCAA Champions in four sets to advance to the program's first NCAA national championship. In the final against

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

, Minnesota could not stop Ogonna Nnamani and struggled to find an offensive rhythm, falling in three straight sets to finish as national runners-up. Despite leaving the match against Stanford with a neck injury, Minnesota All-American libero Paula Gentil set an NCAA tournament record for digs in the NCAA tournament with 173 total in six matches.

2009

Minnesota, the 11th seed, earned its third Final Four appearance since 2003 by defeating third seeded Florida State 3–1 (25–20, 25–7, 18–25, 25–17). This appearance marks the second time Minnesota has qualified for the Final Four via playing on its home court: "The Sports Pavilion" – the first time occurred during the 2004 tournament. Minnesota was knocked out of the national semifinals by Texas in three sets.

2015

After a frustrating 2014 season that saw the Golden Gophers miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998, Minnesota started the season unranked in the AVCA preseason poll, and was picked to finish fifth in the

. Under the stewardship of Big Ten Coach of the Year and AVCA Coach of the Year Hugh McCutcheon, and led by the play of four AVCA All-Americans,Four Named AVCA All-Americans
/ref> Minnesota trumped all expectations, on its way to an 18–2 Big Ten conference record that was the best in its history and earned the program its second-ever Big Ten conference championship, the first one since 2002. The Golden Gophers entered the NCAA Tournament with a 26–4 record that earned them the top seed in their bracket and the No. 2 overall seed. After dropping just one set in regional play, Minnesota arrived at the Final Four in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, where it lost in the national semifinals to the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and ...

2016

Minnesota lost 3–1 to eventual national champion

in the 2016 NCAA semifinals. Minnesota had been ranked #1 in the final AVCA regular-season poll, but were seeded #2 going into the tournament, behind #1 Nebraska.

2019

As the overall #7 seed in the tournament, Minnesota advanced to its sixth Final Four in program history with a 3-0 sweep of unseeded

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. As in 2016, Minnesota lost to eventual national champion

in the 2019 NCAA semifinals.

Players

All-Americans

A list of first, second, third team and honorable mention

AVCA The American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) is an organization of over 9,000 members, incorporated as a private non-profit corporation, non-profit educational corporation in 1981, as the Collegiate Volleyball Coaches Association. It is cur ...

All-American volleyball players."Minnesota volleyball awards and honors"
/ref> *1996 – Katrien DeDecker (1st team) *1999 –

Nicole Branagh Nicole Christine Branagh (born January 31, 1979, in Orinda, California) is an American volleyball player. She has represented the United States in international competition as a member of both the indoor and beach national teams. With partner El ...

(2nd team) *2000 – Nicole Branagh (2nd team); Stephanie Hagen (2nd team) *2002 – Cassie Busse (2nd team); Paula Gentil (3rd team) *2003 – Cassie Busse (1st team); Paula Gentil (2nd team) *2004 – Kelly Bowman (1st team); Paula Gentil (1st team); Erin Martin (honorable mention) *2005 - Paula Gentil (Honorable Mention) *2006 – Meredith Nelson (2nd team) *2008 – Brook Dieter (2nd team);

Lauren Gibbemeyer Lauren Gibbemeyer (born September 8, 1988) is an American indoor volleyball player. She was a member of the United States women's national volleyball team and plays as middle blocker. Career She played college women's volleyball at University ...

(3rd team) *2009 – Lauren Gibbemeyer(1st team); Taylor Carico (3rd team) *2011 – Ashley Wittman (2nd team); Tori Dixon (Honorable Mention) *2012 – Katherine Harms (1st team); Tori Dixon (2nd team); Ashley Wittman (Honorable Mention) *2013 - Tori Dixon (1st team); Ashley Wittman (2nd team); Adrianna Nora (Honorable Mention) *2014 - Paige Tapp (3rd team); Daly Santana (Honorable Mention) *2015 – Hannah Tapp (1st team); Daly Santana (1st team); Samantha Seliger-Swenson (2nd team); Paige Tapp (3rd team) *2016 - Sarah Wilhite (1st team); Samantha Seliger-Swenson (1st team); Hannah Tapp (2nd team);

Alexis Hart Alexis may refer to: People Mononym * Alexis (poet) ( – ), a Greek comic poet * Alexis (sculptor), an ancient Greek artist who lived around the 3rd or 4th century BC * Alexis (singer) (born 1968), German pop singer * Alexis (comics) (1946–1 ...

(Honorable Mention) Molly Lohman (Honorable Mention) *2017 - Stephanie Samedy (1st team); Samantha Seliger-Swenson (2nd team); Alexis Hart (3rd team); Molly Lohman (Honorable Mention) *2018 - Stephanie Samedy (1st team); Samantha Seliger-Swenson (1st team); Regan Pittman (2nd team); Alexis Hart (Honorable Mention); Adanna Rollins (Honorable Mention); Taylor Morgan (Honorable Mention) *2019 - Stephanie Samedy (2nd team); Regan Pittman (1st team); Alexis Hart (3rd team); CC McGraw (Honorable Mention) *2020 - Stephanie Samedy (1st team); Regan Pittman (Honorable Mention); Taylor Landfair (Honorable Mention) *2021 - Stephanie Samedy (1st team); CC McGraw (Honorable Mention) *2022 - Taylor Landfair (1st team)

Season-by-season results

References

External links

* {{University of Minnesota campus