“Those trips out west are no joke,” Cook said. “At the end of this, when you look at the winning percentage of teams that travel multiple time zones, you’ll see how challenging it’s going to be year in and year out.”
The Gophers entered Saturday’s match sixth in the Big Ten standings. The conference has six teams ranked in the AVCA poll’s top 15. Three of the four newcomers are in the top eight in the standings.
Saturday was Alumni Day at the Pavilion, and more than 35 former players were welcomed back, acknowledged decade by decade, starting with the 1970s.
The 2004 team that was the first and only Gophers team to make the NCAA championship final game — against Stanford — was specifically honored.
Kelly Bowman and Paula Gentil were named first-team All America from that team, which set a school record with 33 wins.
