Fans who were concerned about the Michigan State match being a harbinger of something did not exactly have their concerns allayed Wednesday night against Northwestern … but the Wildcats never hit 20, and Purdue swept them in a way that made you feel like they hadn’t brought their A game but still had control of the match.

Sunday, when most of the Block Party was in costume, the Boilers dressed as a national contender again. Third-ranked Wisconsin’s first lead was the first point in set two … after being down in the opener by as many as 12 and losing by 5. The Badgers would drop the second as well, take the third and go to deuce in the fourth, but the Good Gals prevailed, holding UW’s All-American lineup in check and contributing to Chaos Week in conference play (more on that below).

AVCA put Purdue at #8, maybe a little high, but that’ll sort itself out in time. Massey’s ratings have more inertia, as objective systems tend to at this point in the season, so the Boilers are “only” 11th there.

#13 Purdue 3, #60 Northwestern 0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-17)

Personnel

Jael Johnson was back and played all three sets, with Raven Colvin the other MB. Marissa Hornung isn’t 100% yet - in Monday’s press conference, she mentioned it was a hamstring/groin thing, so it may be a while before she’s fully healthy - but played in all three as well. Emma Ellis was the second OH. Ava Torrance, Megan Renner and Savana Chacon made brief appearances late in the third set, but no other bench players appeared.

Recap

Purdue roared out to a 5-1 lead, keyed by aces form Hornung and Jena Otec, then basically traded points until 9-6, when they got six in a row to essentially put the set away. Northwestern did not threaten again, but Purdue’s bench didn’t make an appearance; a Colvin kill and a Colvin/Cleveland block ended the set at 25-16.

Set two did not start the same way; the Wildcats scored the first two points and led as late as 7-8, then hung around the rest of the way. The Boilers couldn’t get clear of Northwestern but also weren’t quite in danger, and at 21-19, they ran off the last four points to go into the break up 2-0.

Set three was a mix of the first two: Northwestern started off well again, leading 1-2 and 2-3, but Purdue used runs of 4-0 and 7-0 to lead 13-5, and from there it was just a question of when. The answer was at 22-14, when Renner replaced Hayley Bush; Torrance came in to serve for Johnson at 23-15, and Chacon replaced Newton defensively at 24-15. The Boilers lost the first two match points, so Otec came in for Torrance, and a Renner/Colvin block ended it at 25-17.

Stats

Purdue led across the board: attack (44 at .352 to 32 at .113), aces (5-2), blocks (11-6), assists (40-31) and digs (39-29).

The Boilers managed just one player with double-digit kills, but Newton made it easily, with a match-high 16 at .406 (adding 7 digs, 1 solo block and 1 block assist). Bush led all players with 31 assists and 11 digs, recording yet another double-double. Otec’s 2 aces (+1) were tops as well, with Newton (1/-1), Hornung (1/even) and Johnson (1/+1) serving the others. Ellis and Colvin each recorded two solo blocks, with Colvin leading all players at 4.5 total.

Northwestern’s attack was led once again by all-around quality junior OH Temi Thomas-Ailara, who had 15 kills at .235, plus one ace (-2), NU’s only solo block, and a team-high 8 digs. Sophomore setter Alexa Rousseau had 29 assists. Senior libero Megan Miller (Alexandria/Alexandria-Monroe HS, +1) served the other ace and added 6 digs. Sophomore MB Leilani Dodson and Rousseau joined Thomas-Ailara with 1.5 total blocks.

#13 Purdue 3, #3 Wisconsin 1 (25-20, 25-22, 20-25, 28-26)

Personnel

No backups in this one. Maddy Chinn was the only non-starter to make an appearance, coming in briefly for Ellis in one set.

Recap

The match in a nutshell: it’s 2-1 Purdue in the first set, Wisconsin is serving for the first time. The Badgers set perennial All-American MB Dana Rettke … who is blocked by Colvin. The Boilers get a point on a Newton kill, then Julia Orzol gets a kill and it’s 4-2. Pretty much the whole match was Purdue doing great things and then not much to follow.

The first set, though, was the exception. After that start, the Boilers led 6-2, then 9-3, 11-4, 13-5, and finally 18-6. It would have looked like they were going to blow the Badgers off the court, except we’d just seen this play out last week and Purdue barely held on to that first-set win in Lincoln, then couldn’t manage another. Sure enough, an 0-7 run closed the gap from 21-9 to 21-16, then another run at 23-16 made it 23-19. A Bush dump set up set point; Grace Loberg got Wisconsin a chance to serve with a kill, but Ellis put away a Bush set for a 25-20 win.

The Boilers would not run away with any other sets, but they did go into the break up 2-0. Wisconsin stayed even until 7-6, when Purdue ran off four straight to lead 11-6. The Badgers answered at 14-10, getting an 0-5 run to lead 14-15. At 15-16, it was the Good Gals’ turn, with a 4-1 run to lead 19-17. Wisconsin tied it at 19; Purdue used a 4-1 run at 20-20 to get set point at 24-21. A Rettke kill gave the Badgers one last chance, but Bush dumped for the win, and the Boilers took a surprising 2-0 lead into the break.

Set three looked really, really good at first, with a 7-1 run putting the hosts up 8-2, but no one really believed it was going to be an easy sweep, and sure enough, Wisconsin settled in, cutting the lead to 9-6 and then tying it at 11. They went up 13-15 on an 0-3 run, but Purdue fought back, tying it at 18. Another 0-3 run but Wisconsin up to stay, 18-21, and a final 0-3 run closed it out at 20-25.

Once again, the Boilers were off and running, albeit more slowly this time, with leads of 3-1 and 5-3 early in set four. They got to 8-5 and then 10-7, but Wisconsin stayed close, eventually tying it at 13. Purdue responded with two points for 15-13, but a 1-5 run reversed the lead, 16-18. Then, at 17-19, Purdue had a 5-0 run to lead 22-19, and suddenly the Badgers were in a tough spot. They answered with five of their own, and facing a UW set point, Purdue got kills from Johnson and Newton to go to deuce. Orzol gave Wisconsin another set point with a kill, but Grace Cleveland tied it with one of her own, and a Wisconsin attack error gave Purdue its first match point. Jade Demps killed that one, but a rare bad-set call on Rettke (if you guessed that this up ref wasn’t the best, well, let’s just say there was plenty of evidence) put Wisconsin in another hole, and this time, Purdue got it done, with an Ellis kill finishing the match at 28-26.

Stats

Purdue had a decided advantage in blocks, 16-7, which is really odd when you look at how tall Wisconsin is and how well they usually hit. The Badgers’ setting wasn’t the best - Hilley had a real off night for her - and too many UW hitters found themselves just over the net, hitting right into the Purdue block.

The Boilers also led in attack (62 at .219 to 59 at .197), aces (4-0), and assists (57-56), while Wisconsin led in digs (79-86). The aces stat was odd because it really seemed like UW was not going to be aggressive at the line, unlike, say, Illinois. In theory it helped them - Purdue had 11 service errors to just 4 for Wisconsin - but the Boilers also weren’t out of system nearly as often as Illinois had them, and that made a big difference

Newton led the Purdue attack again, with 17 kills at .123, and Cleveland added 15 at .300. (I might set the first-team All-American more often, but what do I know.) Bush tied for match honors with 49 assists and added 14 digs for another double-double, but also got called for one of four setting errors on the night (see above comment about up ref). Newton (-2), Hornung (even), Cleveland (-2) and Johnson (-2) had Purdue’s aces. Newton, Johnson and Colvin each had a solo block, with Colvin adding 10 assists for a 6.0 total, nearly matching Wisconsin on her own. Otec had 22 digs to lead the Boilers, with Hornung matching Bush at 14 and Maddie Schermerhorn adding 11.

Wisconsin’s attack was led by a familiar face - no, not that one, but senior OH Grace Loberg, with 15 kills at .282. Sophomore OH Jade Demps had 13 at .303, freshman OH Julia Orzol 11 at .045, sophomore MB/RS Devyn Robinson 10 at .250, while fifth-year MB Rettke managed 9 at .263. Fifth-year setter Sydney Hilley had 49 assists to tie Bush and added 16 digs for her own double-double, and did not get called for a set error (the other two were on Robinson). Rettke had Wisconsin’s only solo block and tied Robinson and Demps with 2.0 total. Fifth-year libero Lauren Barnes led all players with a whopping 33 digs; junior DS Izzy Ashburn added 10.

Overall thoughts

It’s always a good match when I’m disappointed most of the time and the Boilers are almost in complete control - it’s not as good as sweeping something like 15/12/10, but 3-0 is 3-0, and if you can’t crush your opponents, keeping them from taking a set is the next best thing.

The Wisconsin match, though, was something else. This was the team we were thinking might have a chance at hosting a regional this season. That’s probably off the table unless they run said table - and even then, the way Texas and Louisville are playing won’t leave a lot of room for anyone else in the top four - but nonetheless, it was great to watch, even better considering there wasn’t ever a match point for the visitors. I much prefer those to the five-set thrillers, since those all too often end up as losses. Some folks prefer the close ones, but I’d rather see the Good Gals up big and watch the bench players get some reps.

Conference standings

Going into the weekend, Nebraska was a game ahead of Wisconsin, who was two games ahead of Penn State and Minnesota. With the right results, Nebraska could have pulled away, or the Badgers could have made more distance between the top two and the rest. Instead, the top seven are now separated by just two games, and the real separation is between seventh and eighth. (Sorry, Michigan.)

Wisconsin grabbed a share of first with an impressive 3-0 sweep at Nebraska, then ran into Halloween in Holloway and came out tied with the Huskers, who fell to Minnesota as well; a sweep of Indiana put the Gophers just a game back. Ohio State kept pace with an unbeaten trip through the Wolverine State, as did Purdue with its aforementioned two wins. Penn State swept Maryland but dropped a 1-3 match at home to Illinois, who barely escaped Rutgers with a 3-2 win earlier in the week.

Michigan fell another game back with that 0-3 loss at home to OSU; they did sweep Iowa to stay even with Maryland, who swept Rutgers away. Both teams are theoretically in the running for an at-large bid but will probably have too many losses to be considered, which I think is fair. The VB tournament is like all the others and does not need to be a playground for power-conference teams; show the depth of the sport by getting teams from lesser conferences in there, and help build the sport everywhere, not just in the Power 5.

Northwestern won 3-1 at Indiana to stay a game back of Maryland and Michigan; Indiana, Michigan State and Rutgers went 0-2 on the week, while Iowa upset MSU 3-1 in East Lansing to get its first conference win. The Hawkeyes then proceeded to fire their coach mid-week, which is very puzzling because she took over as interim coach two years ago when the previous coach was fired for recruiting violations that put the Hawkeyes on probation. Not sure what the AD was expecting from a team in the deepest conference in America coming off probation in a year where everyone is keeping top-rated fifth-year talent.

Wisconsin might get some breathing room this week, as they get the Northwestern/Iowa road trip while Nebraska and Minnesota visit Illinois and Ohio State; the Boilers could move up as well if they hold serve. Penn State gets the Michigan schools at home and should maintain position as well. Rutgers has a good chance at its first win when they host Michigan State; let’s hope that if it comes this week, it’s that match and not Sunday’s.

Next up

A comparatively easy road trip, starting off with the team that gave Wisconsin its first loss of the season. Once again, these are matches Purdue must win to stay on pace for a top-four finish and an NCAA seed. (Six Big Tenteen teams will probably get seeded, maybe even seven, but a top-eight seed means you don’t face the home team until the regional finals, if then, and that should be Purdue’s goal.) Take care of business, Boilers.

Friday, 7:00 PM: at #48 Maryland (BTN+, live stats) - note that this feed is the “we’re not getting paid full TV money” feed and has neither announcers nor a chyron
Sunday, 1:00 PM EST: at #122 Rutgers (BTN+, live stats)

Photos courtesy of Purdue Athletics; some were taken by Andrew Stein