The barnyard and zoo animals can't make it Friday night. They're shipping up to Boston for hockey. No way around it; their scholarships require it.
True story: The dozen or so students who turn out for University of Minnesota women's volleyball matches as cows, pigs, penguins, Super Mario Brothers and a gorilla aren't just goofy students. They're actually athletes themselves, and outstanding ones at that -- the two-time defending NCAA champion Minnesota women's hockey team.
Eight live in off-campus housing diagonally across the street from volleyball seniors Sarah Wilhite, Hannah and Paige Tapp, and Katie Schau. The volleyball Gophers are 2-0 when the hockey Gophers show up in costume, and Wilhite and Co. would love to see their pals cheering in the student section at this weekend's NCAA regional in Minneapolis.
Unfortunately, Friday night is out. The hockey team will be finishing its game at Boston University while, back home, Minnesota meets Missouri in the Sweet 16. But if the volleyball team advances to Saturday's regional final, the hockey team might be back in time to catch some of the match. Hockey starts at 3 p.m. EST and charters home afterward; volleyball tips at 10 p.m.
"That's a game-changer," said junior forward Kelly Pannek, the leading scorer in Division I. "It would be fun if we could swing by."
Gophers volleyball is the hottest ticket on campus these days, reflecting the groundswell of support for Hugh McCutcheon's dynamic squad that ranks No. 1 in one national poll and No. 2 in the other.
The 27-4 Gophers sold out their last four Big Ten Conference matches at the 5,200-capacity Sports Pavilion -- the Pav for short -- as well as the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. Tickets were so tight for the second round against Hawaii that scalpers worked the perimeter of the Pav, rare for a Minnesota women's game.
Athletes claim some of the 200 day-of-the-match student tickets, cramming into small bleachers behind each end line.
Showing up in costume isn't unusual at Minnesota. The student section at basketball's Williams Arena, a.k.a. The Barn, is known as The Barnyard, and many dress the part. Basketball coach Richard Pitino's brother Ryan once came to a game in a chicken suit and sat next to their father, Louisville coach Rick Pitino. The photos of them went viral.
The hockey dress-up gag began with volleyball's Oct. 29 match against Penn State. Senior defenseman Kelsey Cline said everyone already had their Halloween costumes, so as a goof they decided to wear them to the match. "We said, 'What the heck?'" Cline said. The Gophers won in straight sets before a raucous crowd of 5,391.
"After the match we went over to the volleyball girls' house," Cline said. "They told us how much they loved it and how much it helped them. They said, 'You've got to come to the rest of our home games.'"
Conflicting schedules prevented that until Nov. 23, the night before Thanksgiving, when Minnesota faced top-ranked and reigning national champion Nebraska. Hockey coach Brad Frost keeps a stash of costumes in his office for an annual Halloween-themed practice, and the players raided the closet before heading over. Cline dressed as a penguin and Pannek a leprechaun.
An even bigger sellout of 5,401 saw Minnesota drop the first two sets and trail 23-20 in the third before rallying to win, 28-26, 25-17, 17-15. The Big Ten Network televised the match and featured the players in crowd shots.
"It was something funny to do, like high school days, having a theme for the football game," Pannek said. "We were just doing something a little bit different and standing out."
The atmosphere at the Pav, a converted hockey arena, rocks. That's not a recent development. Minnesota ranked among the top 10 in NCAA attendance in the final decade of former coach Mike Herbert's 15 seasons (he retired in 2010), and the Pav attendance record of 5,840 dates to 1999.
But the next four largest crowds all happened since McCutcheon, the two-time U.S. Olympic coach, arrived in 2012. This season, only Nebraska (8,199), Hawaii (6,579) and Wisconsin (5,915) topped the Gophers (4,766) in average home attendance.
Because NCAA tournament regulations prohibit the host team from egging on their crowd, the customary public address call-and-response to Minnesota points -- "Point U!" -- is out for postseason play. But last Saturday night, by the end of Minnesota's three-set victory over Hawaii, some in the crowd yelled "Point U!" without prompting.
"It's loud, and the fans are supercrazy," Rainbow Wahine senior middle hitter Annie Mitchem said. "It was hard to come back after we were down."
McCutcheon appreciates the assist.
"If people are feeling connected to what we're doing, that's great," he said. "The reason for that would be, our athletes are authentic. They work hard. They're out there competing. They're trying to win the next point. And we happen to play in the best league in the country. If you like volleyball, it's probably pretty good to watch. There's no pretense to it."
Or with their fans, even if they don't always come as they are.