Mckenna Wucherer has 1,000 career kills. The senior outside hitter got there Sunday, October 11, in Columbus. It was her 13th kill of the match and came in the third set, as the No. 21 Gophers swept Ohio State 25-23, 25-20, 25-22. The program named the moment one of its Top Plays of the Week for Gopher volleyball.
It was a clean road win. Minnesota hit .296 as a team and .400 in the second set. The sweep moved the Gophers to 9-5 overall and 3-3 in the Big Ten. Minnesota now leads the all-time series with Ohio State 53-37. Carly Gilk ended the second set with a kill.
Kelly Kinney was right behind Wucherer at the top of the stat sheet. Her kill ended a tight first set at 25-23, and the program's other Top Play of the Week was a "B1G Kill for Kinney." Wucherer and Kinney led the Gophers in kills. Stella Swenson ran the offense with 37 assists, and Zeynep Palabiyik had 10 digs.
This one took longer than it might have. Wucherer is from Brookfield, Wisconsin. Before the 2025 season, the program said she would redshirt that year out of an abundance of caution for her health. She had been dealing with a back injury since the previous season. At the time she had played in 77 career matches, averaging 2.86 kills, 1.34 digs and 0.5 blocks per set, and she had been named to the 2025 Preseason All-Big Ten team. She sat out a full year and came back this fall, and 1,000 kills is a good sign that the back is holding up.
She's been piling up kills all fall. She had 21 against the Tigers on September 2 and 25 in a win on September 18. Those are the kinds of nights that got her to 1,000 by mid-October.
Next up is a two-match Big Ten weekend: Michigan on Friday, October 16, at 7 p.m. CT, then Maryland on Saturday, October 17, at 6 p.m. CT. With the Gophers sitting at .500 in conference, both matches matter, and Minnesota will be counting on Wucherer and Kinney again.
