It’s never a good thing to be down a player, and in volleyball, the one player you usually don’t want to be missing is your setter, especially in a 5-1* offense like Purdue runs.

So when the Boilers took the floor Friday night against Minnesota, and we noticed that Grace Balensiefer was setting, our two thoughts were “where’s Megan?” and “wasn’t Megan in warmups?” Yes, we think she was, but it could easily have been a thing where she wasn’t out but also wasn’t 100%, so the trainers wanted to see how she felt before clearing her to play. Whatever it was, they didn’t clear her … and it didn’t seem to matter, as the Boilers rolled (mostly) to a 3-0 sweep of the Gophers in a convincing start to Big Tenteen play.

Then on Sunday, Maddie Schermerhorn was the next one to be out; everyone moved up one spot, with Ali Hornung as libero, Emily Brown as the starting DS, and Ava Torrance as the opposite DS. (No more back row injuries, please!) Purdue did seem a bit off during the first two sets, splitting those, but they rolled in the last two and moved to 2-0 in conference play.

Friday’s performance might have been enough on its own, but their finish on Sunday helped Purdue sweep the weekly awards, as Balensiefer was Setter of the Week, Hornung was Defensive Player of the Week, and Eva Hudson was Freshman (again) and Co-Player of the Week. Not a bad start at all! When the AVCA poll and analytics agree that you might be pretty darn good … you might be pretty darn good.

*Offense descriptions like 5-1 refer to the number of attackers (front-row only) and setters, respectively, that see the floor during a complete set of 6 rotations. In a 5-1, the lone setter does not come out, so when she is in the front row, there are only 2 attackers up front she can set; in a 6-2, setters rotate out and in so there’s always one in the back row and always three options in front (OH, MB, OPP). There are other combinations as well, but those are the two I’ve seen most often.

Purdue 3, Minnesota 0 (25-18, 25-23, 32-30)

Personnel

Renner is still probably the starting setter when healthy, but Balensiefer was just fine in relief, so that may be interesting moving forward. The rest of the rotation seems almost entirely set - Raven Colvin and Hannah Clayton at MB, Madeline Koch at OPP, and the back row as listed above (Schermerhorn, Hornung, Brown, Torrance), with Hudson as the starting OH and the other OH spot going to the hot hand between Maddy Chinn and Emma Ellis. With Schermerhorn healthy Friday, no reserves played other than Grace filling in for Megan.

Recap

The opening set started off fairly even, with Minnesota going up by a couple of points, Purdue tying or taking a short-lived lead (at 6-5 on a Colvin ace), then Minnesota responding, until it was 6-9 Minnesota. The teams traded points through 8-11 … and then suddenly it was 15-11, keyed by consecutive Schermerhorn aces and three Hudson kills. A Mckenna Wucherer kill stopped the run, but Balensiefer set the next three points, two to Hudson and one to Colvin, and Minnesota was done, scoring just once on their own serve the rest of the way. At 23-18, a Koch/Clayton block of Wucherer set up set point, and a Minnesota error put the set in the books for the Good Gals.

Purdue got off to a better start in set two, leading 4-2, but Minnesota scored the next four points, and this time there was no sustained run by the Boilers … but the Gophers just couldn’t get to a safe distance. They used a 1-5 run to lead 6-11 and then 7-12, but Purdue closed to within two after three straight attack errors (two unforced and one Clayton/Hudson block), then used kills by Koch and Hudson to make it 13-14 a little later. Then the fun started: at 14-16, a 4-0 run gave the hosts what seemed like a decent lead, but an 0-4 run gave it right back to Minnesota. Purdue cut it to one on another Gopher attack error, but two straight points pushed the visitors’ lead back to three. Two more errors dropped it to one again; Wucherer got a Melani Shaffmaster pass down to deny Purdue a tie. Finally, at 21-23, the Boilers stepped up: a Koch kill and a Koch/Colvin block of Wucherer tied it at 23, Koch made it 24-23, and appropriately, the final point was yet another Minnesota error. The Gophers played very poorly in set two, hitting just .067 with 12 attack errors, and it cost them a close one.

Then there was set three. Minnesota’s largest lead was 2, at 0-2; their last lead before deuce was 8-9. Purdue’s largest lead was 3, at 12-9, 18-15, and 19-16. The Gophers’ best run was 3 (to erase the 19-16 lead); Purdue’s best run was 4 (to turn 8-9 into 12-9). While the first half of the set was entertaining enough, we’ll pick it up at that 19-16 lead, with Balensiefer serving: a Carter Booth kill, a Taylor Landfair kill, and a block by the two of them on Chinn tied it at 19; Koch broke the tie and an attack error made it 21-19. Minnesota’s attack caused the next three points, with a Booth kill, another error, and a kill from Jenna Wenaas; a Purdue attack error tied it at 22. Hudson made it 23-22, but was blocked by Shaffmaster and Naya Gros for 23-all. Another Hudson kill set up Purdue’s first match point - if you’re watching the replay, I wouldn’t recommend standing for these unless you’ve warmed up first, because there’s a lot of them. Wucherer tied it at 24 and another Purdue error gave Minnesota their first set point; Colvin erased that with a kill, but Wucherer made it 25-26 before a Clayton kill tied it again. This time, Purdue got the lead, as Balensiefer’s serve found the court, but a service error erased match point #2. A rare double-hit call gave Purdue match point #3, but Landfair made short work of it and it was back to deuce at 28. Another Clayton kill set up #4; another Landfair kill tied it and another Purdue attack error gave the Gophers their second set point; Hudson sent that away for 30-30, Balensiefer put the Boilers up 31-30, and on match point #5, Colvin put it away for a thrilling 32-30 victory and a rare 3-0 sweep of Minnesota, their first since November 2014 (but their second straight win over the Gophers, as Purdue won their only 2021 meeting 3-1 in Minneapolis).

Stats

A sweep usually tilts things in favor of the winners, and Purdue did have the edge in everything except blocks (7-9 for Minnesota): attack (51 at .248 to 42 at .198), aces (5-1), assists (47-40) and digs (50-48).

The long third set also helped boost individual numbers. Minnesota’s attack was led by redshirt sophomore OH Taylor Landfair, who had 17 kills at .273; freshman OH Mckenna Wucherer added 13 at .226. Junior setter Melani Shaffmaster (New Castle, IN/New Castle HS) had a double-double with 28 assists and 11 digs; junior OH/OPP Jenna Wenaas had the Gophers’ only ace (+1) and added 10 digs; freshman MB Carter Booth had a match-high 3.5 blocks (all assists); and fifth-year libero CC McGraw led Minnesota with 13 digs.

Once again, Purdue’s attack was led by Hudson, who had a match-high 21 kills at .364. Balensiefer recorded 41 assists and had one of Purdue’s five aces (even), with the others coming from Schermerhorn (3/+2) and Colvin (1/-2). Clayton’s 2 solo blocks were the only ones of the match, and her 3.0 total blocks were a team high. Hornung led all players with 15 digs as a DS; Schermerhorn was close behind with 12.

Purdue 3, Iowa 1 (29-27, 19-25, 25-16, 25-18)

Personnel

Renner did play a bit in this one, but Balensiefer got the bulk of the assists. Ellis and Chinn again split the OH spot opposite Hudson in the rotation. No other bench players appeared.

Recap

Set one started out quite a bit like it did on Friday, which was an ominous sign against a team not nearly as good as the Gophers. Iowa grabbed a quick 0-1 lead, then basically traded points through 9-8; the teams traded 3-point and 2-point runs for 14-13, and then almost ended the set entirely with runs: 14-16 Iowa, 18-16 Purdue, 18-all, 20-18 Purdue, a rare single point by Iowa, 23-19 Purdue, 23-21, a rare single point by Purdue, and then three straight set points saved by Iowa, two on Amiya Jones kills and one on a Jones/Michelle Urquhart block of Koch. A service error gave Purdue a fourth set point, but an Addie VanderWeide kill took care of that, and a Purdue attack error gave Iowa its first set point. Fortunately, the Boilers had one more run, starting with a Hudson kill; an Iowa attack error brought on set point #5, and Clayton made this one good against her former team, giving Purdue a hard-fought 29-27 set win.

Set two was not that, but oddly enough, it started much more like what we expected to see: a quick 5-1 Purdue lead (although the last three points were on Iowa attack errors, and the next Boiler point was a service error), then 8-3, 10-4, and a trading of points until 12-6. At that point … everything broke. Four straight Iowa kills keyed an 0-7 run that flipped the lead, and still Purdue wasn’t through: two points for 14-13, and after Iowa answered with two of their own, four more for 18-15, but that was it. A pair of 0-5 runs sank the set for the Good Gals, with the last five a service error, two attack errors, an Urquhart kill, and an ace. The Boilers headed to the locker room tied at 1-1 and perhaps lucky even to have that.

The next set looked a lot like the first one, although Purdue did manage to go up 2-0 and basically held that lead through 8-6; the sides traded 2-point runs before an 0-4 Iowa run sounded a lot like “here we go again” and gave the hosts a 10-12 advantage. Fortunately, the Boilers finally started playing like a top-10 team, using an 11-2 run to put the set away and a 4-1 run to finish it, with their last three points coming on kills by Ellis. At 25-16, it finally looked like the Boilers were going to get the W.

Iowa wouldn’t go down easily, though, despite falling behind 3-0 in set four. 3-0 became 3-3 and led to more of that point trading, with Iowa ending up in front at 5-6 and 6-7. A 4-0 Purdue run was countered by a 1-4 Iowa run, but once again, the middle of the set proved to be the Hawkeyes’ undoing, with the Good Gals using a 7-1 stretch to lead comfortably at 18-12. They would get one final run with a couple of Ellis kills and a Colvin ace; at 22-14, Iowa couldn’t get the lead down below 6, and a Hudson kill ended the match, 25-18.

Stats

Once again, Purdue led in all but one category, with aces being the exception this time (4-6); attack (61 at .280 to 51 at .215), blocks (10-5), assists (57-47) and digs (46-37) all favored the Boilers.

Iowa’s attack was led by senior MH* Amiya Jones (Indianapolis/Tindley HS), who had 17 kills at an eye-opening .481 and added a match-high 2 aces (even), 1 solo block, and 4 assists for a team-leading 3.0 total. Sophomore OH Michelle Urquhart added 10 kills at .200 and had one ace (-1) as well, and junior MH Delaney McSweeney just missed double digits with 9 kills at .615. Assists were split between their two setters, with redshirt senior Lily Tessier recording 24 and junior Bailey Ortega adding 20. Tessier also had one ace (+1), with the others coming from sophomore OH Toyosa Onabanjo (-1) and sophomore OH Addie VanderWeide (even). Senior libero Mari Hinkle led Iowa with 16 digs.

*Iowa calls their middles Middle Hitter (MH) instead of Middle Blocker (MB); some other teams do this as well, but there’s really no difference in role. Bonus: some funny things about being a middle, courtesy of VolleyMob.

Eva Hudson! One reason she keeps getting selected as Freshman of the Week is that she keeps getting double-figure kills: 12 matches played, 12 in double digits. Sunday was no exception, as she led all players with 19 at .310; Colvin added 10 at .190 and Ellis had a fine match with 9 kills at .615. (Those are MB numbers; outsides rarely hit that high. See McSweeney’s line above.) Balensiefer took match honors with 37 assists and added an ace (even); Renner played a bit and added 15 assists of her own. Purdue’s other aces came from Colvin (even), Hornung (+1), and Hudson (+1); Hudson had the Boilers’ only solo block and had 3.0 total, good for second behind match leader Colvin (3.5). Hornung led everyone in digs again, this time as a libero, with 20; Emily Brown added 10 at DS.

Overall thoughts

I, uh, may not have caught much of the Iowa match - after the glorious win over Minnesota on Friday, we were treated to That Football Thing on Saturday, this in the early afternoon on Sunday, and then a desultory 1-0 win by Indy Eleven in the late afternoon where the only goal was on an Indy PK on a play where an Eleven attacker may have decided to earn a penalty instead of actually trying for a shot on goal. Purdue is, of course, nowhere near the only fanbase that can’t ever really enjoy a close win, but man, three games in a row that just didn’t feel good to watch, I wasn’t really up for that. (At least the weather was great.)

Having said that, this kind of match is important to win in a conference where literally every road arena is a tough place to play. (The downside to a home arena like Holloway is that every other place is very much not that for you; even a half-empty arena gives off much different vibes.) I guarantee some teams will lose in Iowa City this year; Purdue will not be one of them. And that matters if you’re in the running for a conference title, which the Boilers apparently are looking like they might be - you can’t get to 16-4 or 17-3 without winning most of your road matches.

Conference standings

Nebraska is part of a group of four at the top after sweeping Michigan State and holding off Ohio State in five sets in Lincoln, joining Purdue, Michigan (after sweeping Rutgers and Penn State, both on the road) and Illinois (with easy wins over Maryland and Northwestern). Of the six teams tied at 1-1, three of them were swept (Wisconsin by Minnesota, Minnesota by the Boilers, and Penn State by Michigan), with Ohio State the other contender, sweeping Iowa before their loss at Nebraska.

Indiana managed to take a five-setter at winless Maryland, while Rutgers held off the Spartans in five; Northwestern, Michigan State, Maryland and Iowa have yet to post a win.

Ohio State at Michigan heads the Wednesday schedule (pretend I didn’t already watch that match), with Purdue-Illinois the top one on Friday, no really good ones Saturday, and Illinois-Wisconsin topping the Sunday slate.

Up next

The Boilers look to keep their conference record perfect as they head to fellow unbeaten Illinois; if they survive that one, they should have an easy win Sunday hosting Rutgers.

Friday 8:00 PM: at #37 Illinois (B16+, live stats)
Sunday 1:00 PM: vs #146 Rutgers (B16+, live stats)

Pics this week from Purdue’s gallery and from Exposure, both courtesy of Purdue Sports and both from the Minnesota match. Sorry, no pics at Iowa!