Yay for the Boilermakers! They defeated the Hoosiers last night in a close match of 3-2. The sets were back and forth. Purdue won the first set 25-21, lost the second 13-25, won the third set 25-19, lost the fourth set, 22-25, and ended the match with a 15-12 win over the Hoosiers. This game was a sold out game with a total of 2,493. It was highly populated by a bunch of little girl scout girls who seemed to be the Purdue’s Volleyball team’s biggest fans of the night. All the girls were enthusiastic when it came to Purdue winning.
In the first set, the Hoosiers took an early lead, but after seven ties Purdue finally broke their lead and had a five point lead at 19-14. Then the Hoosiers came back and almost tied the game to 19-17, but with the help of Stephanie Lynch and Carrie Gurnell, they ended the set with a kill each, 25-21.
The Boilermakers were not as fortunate to gain the lead in the second set. Indiana had a big lead early on in the set with a 17-6 lead over the Boilermakers. The closet the set ever got was when the Boilermakers closed the gap to a 21-13, which they were still behind. The Hoosiers took the win with a 25-13 final score. Statistically, during this set alone, IU hit .429 and blocked the Boilermakers five times in the set, while Purdue managed a -.032 hitting effort and just one block.
After the intermission, the Boilermakers came back and got a small lead of 4-1. Indiana came back and almost tied the game to 6-5. During the third set, there was nine lead changes, where neither team could get more than one point passed the other. With a 18-17 lead over the Hoosiers, Purdue took the set to an end with the help of Lisa Pierce, who got a kill and then served for the next six points, putting the set at 24-18. Danita Merlau ended the set with her 5th kill of this set.
The closest set of the night was the fourth set. It consisted of twelve ties, four lead changes, which three of them occurred in the first 11 points. The biggest lead the Boilermakers had was 12-9, but shortly after that, Indiana came back and tied the game up 12-12. Then it was tied at 14-14, but after Jaclyn Hart got a kill and an Indiana error, the boilermakers took the lead once again. Indiana then came back and closed the gap up 17-16. At this point, Indiana broke through and took the lead for the rest of the set. Purdue almost had a good come back and tied the game up 21-21. Indiana pulled through and ended the fourth set 25-22.
It’s now Purdue 2, Indiana 2, so this calls for the fifth set to kick in. The fifth set only goes to 15. For most of the set, the Boilermakers had the lead, and they ended the night with a win of 15-12.
At the end of the game, Purdue’s coach Dave Shondell gave his input about Indiana and the game in general. "I give a lot of credit to Indiana because they have come a long way in a short time under Sherry Dunbar and her staff."They were well prepared for us. For the first two and half games our team played like they had to win. Then, Lisa Pierce came in and got us going with her serve and we settled down. The difference for us tonight was that as the match wore on, defensively our block did a better job of following and defending their hitters."
The No. 18 Boilermakers (21-6, 10-5 Big Ten) return to action at 7 p.m. Saturday when they welcome the defending national champion, No. 1 Penn State to Belin Court.
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