WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The No. 11 Purdue Boilermakers (14-6, 7-4 Big Ten) rounded out a perfect three-match homestand with a victory over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (10-13, 1-10 Big Ten) in Holloway Gymnasium 25-15, 25-18, 16-25, 25-14.
Coming off a week of leading the Big Ten in aces/set, Purdue posted nine service aces, tying the most for the program in conference play this year. Sienna Foster’s tough serving led Purdue on a scoring run, posting 12 consecutive serves in the final frame for Purdue to pull away from a score of 8-8 to 19-8. In the run, Foster registered two aces, tying Anderson and Schara for the lead.
Kate Hansen stuffed the stat sheet in the victory, hitting an errorless six-for-nine at a .667% clip, a performance which extended her existing errorless streak to eight consecutive sets, dating back to 10/23 vs. #20 Minnesota. The senior added a Big Ten-high and team-leading six blocks, along with five digs and one service ace to the night.
Taylor Anderson moved up two spots on the Purdue Top-10 career assists list, passing Annette Bauer (4,568 assists, 1981-84) and Taryn Catlin (4,584 assists, 1996-99) to land in the No. 4 spot. The setter added 36 assists to her career total of 4,596, while also recording four kills and six digs.
Three Boilermakers reached double-digit kills in the showing, Lameen Mambu (13), Grace Heaney (11), Addy Tindall (10). Heaney added 10 digs to register her fifth double-double and seventh time having 10+ digs in a match this season.
Elle Schara has recorded at least one service ace in five of the last six matches. The freshman finished the match against the Scarlet Knights with two service aces and nine digs.
The Purdue defense tallied 10 blocks against Rutgers, with five stuffs coming in the final frame, holding the Scarlet Knights to a .154% clip for the match. Six different Boilermakers (Hansen, Mambu, Heaney, Dior Charles, Anderson, and Tindall) had a hand in the Boiler-block effort.
With the win, Purdue has won six of its last seven matches, with the lone loss coming to undefeated No. 1 Nebraska. The match also marked just the second four-setter of the season, and first win in four frames.
UP NEXT
The No. 11 Purdue Boilermakers head east to take on the No. 13 Penn State Nittany Lions in a Halloween matchup. The match is set to be played at 12:30 p.m. ET on October 31 in University Park, Pennsylvania and available for streaming on B1G+.