So it turns out that, as many of you already know, simply being at home more often does not necessarily mean you have more time for things, and in particular, the world goes on whether or not you’re keeping up on things. Purdue’s volleyball team has been playing Friday and Saturday matches the last three weeks and will continue to do so* for the rest of the season, but I haven’t yet posted either a preseason forecast or a weekly update.

The former wasn’t done because let’s be honest - we don’t even know if the season will come to a normal end, and as we’ve already seen, an outbreak can shut down multiple programs for weeks. April is the target date for a scaled-down 48-team tournament, but I’ll believe it’s happening once it actually starts. (All matches will be played in Omaha.) But I should have been keeping up on the latter … instead, you’ll be getting compressed updates this season, I think.

Let’s get to it!

*see note in the Next Up section

Past action: 2-4, #22

Someone said Purdue might be the best 2-4 team in volleyball history, and they might be right. Normally, most teams start their season slowly, playing some easier (and usually local) non-conference opponents before they get into a couple of more challenging matches. There are some exceptions - elite teams frequently have at least one tough opponent or tournament - but you don’t usually get them back-to-back. The Boilers opened on the road at #1 Wisconsin and had to do so without All-American OPP Grace Cleveland, who was out with a non-COVID illness.

After understandably being swept twice, they came back to Holloway and returned the favor to Iowa, a young team that’s trying to build under Vicki Brown, who’s in her second season in Iowa City. Last weekend, Cleveland returned and was a key performer in a pair of thrilling 2-3 losses to #5 Minnesota. It’s not often you have 4 top-5 losses at this point in the season!

Fri 1/22 - Purdue 0, Wisconsin 3 (14-25, 15-25, 16-25)

With Cleveland out, the Purdue offense never really got going; Wisconsin was rolling from the start and was never really challenged.

Turning point

None. The Badgers won each set by at least nine points.

Leaders

Purdue
Kills: Newton 11 (.079), Jael Johnson 10 (.438)
Assists: Hayley Bush 26
Aces: Newton 1 (+1), Jena Otec 1 (even)
Blocks: Taylor Trammell 1.0 (1 solo), Bush and Johnson 0.5
Digs: Otec 8

Wisconsin
Kills: Dana Rettke 11 (.733)
Assists: Sydney Hilley 33
Aces: Grace Loberg 2 (+2), Lauren Barnes 1 (-1)
Blocks: Rettke 3.5 (3 solo), Devyn Robinson 0.5
Digs: Barnes 11

Sat 1/23 - Purdue 0, Wisconsin 3 (18-25, 21-25, 19-25)

Purdue reined in the Wisconsin attack a bit, but continued to struggle against the defending national runners-up and weren’t able to win a set this time either.

Turning point

After a strong first set, the Boilers played a great second set, leading by five as late as 19-14. After a Loberg kill gave the serve back to the home team, Wisconsin went on a 2-11 run to close the set, only losing points on an attack error and a service error. The Good Gals were competitive in the third set as well, but never got closer to a set win than that.

Leaders

Purdue
Kills: Newton 9 (.022)
Assists: Bush 25
Aces: Newton 4 (+4), Otec 1 (+1), Johnson 1 (+1)
Blocks: Johnson and Madeline Koch 0.5
Digs: Marissa Hornung 10

Wisconsin
Kills: Rettke 14 (.414), Molly Haggerty 12 (.409)
Assists: Hilley 36
Aces: Georgia Civita 1 (-3), Izzy Ashburn 1 (even)
Blocks: Rettke 5.5 (4 solo), Robinson 2.0, Danielle Hart 1.5, Hilley 1.0
Digs: Civita 11, Haggerty 10

Fri 1/29 - Purdue 3, Iowa 0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-17)

Cleveland would miss this match and the next, but with the Boilers back in Holloway and facing much different competition, they didn’t need her. Shondell cleared the bench in this one, with Ava Torrance and Megan Renner seeing their first action of 2021.

Turning point

With the opening set tied at 18, Emma Ellis put down a Bush set, then joined Trammell to block an Emma Grunkemeyer attack. Four more Iowa errors (three attack and one service) plus a Trammell/Maddy Chinn block highlighted a 7-1 Purdue run to close the set, and the Good Gals cruised the rest of the match.

Leaders

Purdue
Kills: Newton 12 (.211)
Assists: Bush 26
Aces: Newton 2 (even), Otec 1 (even), Maddie Schermerhorn 1 (even)
Blocks: Trammell 4.0, Ellis 2.5 (1 solo), Chinn 2.0, Johnson 0.5, Bush 0.5, Koch 0.5
Digs: Bush 11, Otec 11

Iowa
Kills: Audrey Black 9 (.030)
Assists: Bailey Ortega 15, Courtney Buzzerio 10
Aces: Joslyn Boyer 1 (even), Blythe Rients 1 (even)
Blocks: Rients 2.5 (1 solo), Buzzerio 1.5 (1 solo), Black 1.0, Hannah Clayton 0.5, Grunkemeyer 0.5
Digs: Buzzerio 7

Sat 1/30 - Purdue 3, Iowa 0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-21)

Purdue swept the Hawkeyes again, hitting .423 for the match and .615 in an opening set that featured no Boiler attack errors. Savana Chacon and Molly Brown made their debuts in this match. Jael Johnson’s outstanding effort made her the conference Player of the Week.

Turning point

Up 1-0 and 9-8 in the second set, a 6-1 Purdue run put the Boilers ahead comfortably, and an 0-3 Iowa run was answered by a 5-0 Purdue run. The visitors would not be that close again, although a late rally in set 3 looked like it might force a fourth set.

Leaders

Purdue
Kills: Johnson 13 (.684), Ellis 11 (.409)
Assists: Bush 42
Aces: Newton 2 (+2), Otec 2 (+1), Hornung 1 (+1)
Blocks: Ellis 2.0 (1 solo), Trammell 1.5, Johnson 1.0, Chinn 1.0, Bush 0.5, Newton 0.5
Digs: Otec 16, Schermerhorn 10

Iowa
Kills: Black 10 (.161)
Assists: Ortega 18, Buzzerio 12
Aces: Boyer 1 (+1), Ortega 1 (even)
Blocks: Clayton 0.5, Rients 0.5, Edina Schimdt 0.5, Black 0.5
Digs: Leanne Lowry 13, Buzzerio 10

Fri 2/5 - #16 Purdue 2, #4 Minnesota 3 (25-20, 23-25, 26-24, 21-25, 7-15)

Cleveland’s return proved to be a key, as the Good Gals took sets 1 and 3 from Minnesota and looked to have a shot at closing it out in four; the Gophers fought back to take that set and closed out the fifth in decisive fashion. Purdue didn’t get the W, but they came close because of their fantastic efforts at the service line, recording 13 aces and only 8 service errors, while the Gophers had 3 and 5 respectively.

Turning points

Up 2-1 but down 19-22, Purdue closed within one on kills by Bush and Koch. Minnesota slammed the door, getting kills from Stephanie Samedy and Taylor Landfair to earn set point, then finishing it with a Melani Shaffmaster ace.

At 4-5 in the final set, Minnesota got a 1-5 run to open a 5-10 lead; Purdue would get just two more points as the visitors won the match.

Leaders

Purdue
Kills: Newton 24 (.190), Cleveland 17 (.204)
Assists: Bush 51
Aces: Hornung 5 (+3), Otec 3 (+2), Johnson 2 (+2), Newton 2 (+1), Bush 1 (-1)
Blocks: Johnson 1.5, Bush 0.5, Cleveland 0.5, Trammell 0.5, Koch 0.5, Ellis 0.5
Digs: Otec 31, Bush 16, Hornung 16, Newton 14

Minnesota
Kills: Samedy 28 (.371), Adanna Rollins 17 (.300), Landfair 14 (.143)
Assists: Shaffmaster 60
Aces: Regan Pittman 2 (-1), Shaffmaster 1 (even)
Blocks: Pittman 4.5 (2 solo), Samedy 2.0, Shea Rubright 1.5, Shaffmaster 1.0 (1 solo), Rollins 0.5, Landfair 0.5
Digs: Rollins 27, Samedy 26, Rachel Kilkelly 15, Shaffmaster 12, CC McGraw 11, Pittman 10

Sat 2/6 - #16 Purdue 2, #4 Minnesota 3 (18-25, 25-17, 25-17, 21-25, 9-15)

Different day, same result as the Boilers once again took a 2-1 lead, but dropped the fourth set 21-25 and couldn’t make it happen in the fifth.

Turning points

Up 21-18 in set four, Purdue looked ready to pull the upset but could not stop the Gopher attack, as kills from Shaffmaster, Samedy, Landfair and Pittman keyed an 0-7 run to finish the set.

At 7-7 in the fifth, Minnesota used a 1-7 run to blow it open; a double-hit call on Pittman ended the first match point, but a Pittman kill on the next one was good, and the visitors once again had a narrow win, leaving Purdue fans to wonder what might have been.

Leaders

Purdue
Kills: Newton 29 (.267), Cleveland 13 (.178)
Assists: Bush 51
Aces: Johnson 3 (+2), Newton 1 (even), Cleveland 1 (even)
Blocks: Johnson 3.5 (1 solo), Trammell 3.0, Cleveland 2.5, Newton 1.5, Bush 0.5, Ellis 0.5, Koch 0.5
Digs: Bush 22, Otec 21, Hornung 12

Minnesota
Kills: Samedy 20 (.240), Landfair 17 (.268), Rollins 10 (.212)
Assists: Shaffmaster 53
Aces: Jenna Wenaas 2 (even), Rollins 1 (even)
Blocks: Rubright 2.5, Pittman 2.0, Shaffmaster 2.0 (1 solo), Samedy 1.5, Rollins 1.5, Landfair 1.0, Katie Myers 0.5
Digs: Rollins 22, Kilkelly 16, Shaffmaster 15, Samedy 10

Overall thoughts

Wisconsin and Minnesota are really good again, so 2-4 isn’t what you might think it is. Grace Cleveland is really good, and as much as Purdue has improved as a team, if you take away one of their best players, they don’t yet have the depth to make up for her. On the other hand, with Cleveland in the lineup, Newton closing in on full health, and Taylor Trammell rapidly adjusting to Big Tenteen volleyball, the Boilers might still be a force to reckon with this season, and even if they somehow miss out on a truncated tournament, the fall 2021 season should be really good, especially if both Otec and Newton are invited back and choose to return.

Possibly next up

The Good Gals are scheduled to face Michigan on Saturday and Sunday. However, the Wolverines have been idle since the start of the season due to an outbreak that swept across the entire athletic department. These matches may or may not take place as scheduled. After that, it’s Northwestern … who hasn’t played since 1/23 due to their own COVID outbreak.

The Big Tenteen has been pretty good at juggling opponents - for example, when Michigan and Penn State missed the first two weeks, their Week 2 opponents, Ohio State and Michigan State, ended up playing each other, since they weren’t going to play later in the season. It’s possible Purdue could find a new opponent or two if either of these weeks doesn’t play out as scheduled.

If they do, well, I’d guess the Boilers would have an advantage in Ann Arbor since UM hasn’t played at all, but it’s hard to say. Homecourt advantage should be depressed a little due to the lack of fans in the building, but COVID-era travel can wear on you, especially given restrictions on how conference teams can do it (I think they’re being asked to bus whenever possible). Northwestern’s at #14 right now, but Massey really doesn’t have much to go on - two 3-0 sweeps of Rutgers and that’s it. The Boilers should have a couple of easy wins against the Wildcats in Holloway, I would think? I dunno.

2021 class finalized

In the fall, I mentioned that Purdue expected to sign four seniors to arrive in 2021. As is frequently the case, two signed right away, with two more projected to sign in the spring. That happened as expected, with 6’1” OH Emily Rastovski (Morgan Township, IN) and 6’0” S Sydney Yim (Newburyport, MA) joining Ali Hornung and Raven Colvin in the class.

Rastovski, like Colvin, has a Boiler background in football, as her father David played for the Boilers in 1978 and 1979 (yes, that was before my time, believe it or not). She hit .496 as a junior during a full season and .433 during her limited senior season. With Newton potentially departing, the Boilers can always use another solid arm on the outside.

Yim committed in 2019 but had to wait another year to make it official. She averaged a little over 1 ace per set as a senior; while high school numbers generally drop in college due to the level of competition, adding a setter who can serve well is always a bonus. Also, as we’ve seen in the past, setters are like quarterbacks, both because they run your offense and because you can never have too many of them - having Bush, Renner and Yim for 2021 sounds like a good deal to me.

Athletes Unlimited season approaching

The first-ever AU Volleyball season will hopefully start late this month, with one change: the bubble will be in Dallas instead of Nashville. That’s … maybe not the state I’d choose, but I trust the league to make the best decision available. (Remember that in AU, the players have a significant say in what’s going on, partly because there are no franchises and thus no individual owners to make the kind of decisions we’ve been seeing lately, particularly in men’s sports.)

Preseason is one week, with drafts on the 19th and 21st, then matches on the 20th and 21st (from draft 1) and the 22nd (from draft 2). No word on where or if those will be shown; they’ll be showing regular-season matches on CBSSN, FS1, FS2, and the usual streaming outlets (Twitch for me).

As a quick refresher, one of the unique things about AU play is that they use basically a fantasy-sports point system for individual standings; placement in the standings determines the amount of bonus money the players earn at the end of the year. The scoring system is up now, and it works as follows:

• Match/set scoring: 40 per match, 30 per set for each player on the winning team

• MVP voting: 60/40/20 for the top three finishers per match, voted on by players and by Unlimited Club members

• Serving: 12 for an ace, -8 for an error

• Attacking: 8 for a kill, -12 for an error

• Setting: 1 for an assist, -12 for an error

• Digging: 5 for a dig

• Passing: 2 for a pass, -12 for an error

• Blocking: 12 for a block

The passing is interesting, because that’s not something typically tracked in box scores, at least not at the NCAA level. I think you can find it in total, but not necessarily with each match.

Note that all matches will be three sets, not best-of-three, so that all players have a reasonable amount of opportunities per week. Sets are still win-by-two, so in theory you could get more points by playing a really long set, just like how you could get more points (except for pitchers) in softball from a high-scoring game. Also, the match winner will be the team with the most team points (i.e. not these individual points), not the team that wins the most sets.

The first week, captains are chosen at random. After that, at the end of every week, the top four players in the standings become captains and teams are redrafted.

There are 44 players in total, which seems to make for smaller rosters than I’d expect, since the NCAA allows 12 scholarship players per school. We’ll see how it goes - they may decide to expand rosters a bit, or maybe it’ll just stay like this.

In addition to Val and Sherridan, you’ll see a number of other familiar names if you’ve been watching Big Tenteen volleyball over the years. It shouldn’t take long to become familiar with the rest, especially if DraftKings does fantasy games for VB - they did for softball, and for some reason I never played. I mean, this setup is almost literally made for gambling, how could you not?

Images courtesy of Purdue Athletics, as per usual, taken during the Iowa matches by Charles Jischke and Chris Johnson.