Sept. 22, 2007
IOWA CITY, Iowa - The Boilermaker volleyball team picked up its first Big Ten win of the season with a 3-0 sweep of Iowa Saturday night. Purdue won the match 30-20, 30-24, 30-21 to salvage a split in its conference-opening weekend.
Juniors Danita Merlau and Stephanie Lynch led the offensive charge with kill tallies of 14 and 12 respectively. Senior Samantha Mader added eight putdowns. Merlau also served up two aces, while Lynch led Purdue at the net with seven blocks. Freshman Kristen Arthurs registered six blocks, while Mader added five stuffs. Senior Anne Mastandrea led the Boilermaker defense with 16 digs, while sophomore Sam Gray and freshman Jessica Ullrich chalked up 11 digs apiece. Only one Iowa hitter, Katie Wessels, reached double-digit kill tallies with 11.
Purdue outhit Iowa .240 to .069 and outblocked the Hawkeyes 18 to seven.
"This was a good win for us," head coach Dave Shondell said. "Our setting is improving and our serving is improving. We really served tough tonight; it was one of our better serving efforts. They were out of system all night, which gave us a lot of blocks. We are a bigger, more experienced team than they are. The four other years we have been here, that hasn't shown, so was nice to see tonight.
"One player who had a really good weekend was Jess Ullrich. She is passing the ball and serving tough. She has turned into very confident passer and stepped up to give us that when we needed it. I was also glad to see Kristen Arthurs bounce back with six blocks and five kills, which is a good night for her, after a tough match against Minnesota."
Iowa took an early 5-2 lead in Game 1, but Purdue chalked up four straight points, including kills by Lynch and Mader to take a 6-5 lead. The teams tied at six, sparking a string of four ties, the last at 9-9. The Boilermakers outscored the Hawkeyes 13-5 over the next 18 points to pull away to a 22-14 advantage. Purdue posted three blocks and an ace by Merlau in the stretch. The Boilermakers boosted their lead to 10 at 26-26 after an ace by freshman Jessica Ullrich and a few Hawkyes miscues. Iowa managed to make it a seven-point game at 27-20, but Purdue closed out the game with three straight points on a block by sophomore Sam Gray and Lynch and two Hawkeye errors. Merlau registered five kills and Lynch added four in the 30-20 win.
Purdue raced out to a 4-0 lead to start Game 2 as three different players put down kills. The Boilermakers boosted the advantage to five at 9-4, but the Hawkeyes narrowed the gap to two at 11-9. Purdue scored eight of the next 10, including three kills by Gurnell and an ace by Merlau, to go up 19-11. Iowa pulled within six at 20-14, but could get no closer. The Boilermakers advantage swelled to eight at 28-20 on a block by Lynch and Gurnell, but the Hawkeyes scored four of the next five to prolong the game. Purdue won the stanza 30-24 on its second game-point attempt with a putdown by Lynch. Merlau added five kills to her total in the game, while Lynch and Gurnell each put down four. The Boilermakers chalked up seven blocks in the stanza.
The Boilermakers finished the night in quick fashion with a 30-21 win in Game 3. Trailing 8-4, Purdue posted a 14-3 run, including five blocks to turn the deficit into an 18-11 lead. Merlau and Mader chalked up kills in the stretch, while Mader, Arthurs and Gurnell recorded stuffs. Iowa capitalized on a few Boilermaker miscues to narrow the gap to three at 21-18, but that sparked a 4-0 run by Purdue. The Hawkeyes registered three in a row, but Purdue answered with three points of its own on a putdown by Mader and a pair of Iowa errors to make it 29-20. A kill by Megan Eskew kept the Hawkeyes alive, but Arthurs slammed down an overpass kill to seal the sweep.
Purdue returns to action at 7 p.m. Friday when they welcome the No. 22 Ohio State Buckeyes to the IAF.