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Spring Volleyball
- By JeffBoiler
- Purdue Women's Sports
- 4 Replies
Thank you. Awesome summary and comments on both matches. Glad to hear of good support for the Pro teams - nice that each team has some Purdue flavor with former Boilers on them.I'm guessing it may be my turn to provide a brief download on one of the spring season volleyball matches.This match was a against Vanderbilt yesterday afternoon at the new Fischer's Event Center and was scheduled just prior to the professional match between Indy Ignite and the Grand Rapids Rise. Actually, you had to have tickets for the Ignite and Rise match to see the P vs V match. What an incredibly beautiful venue for a sporting event which I understand is the host venue for not only the Ignite, but also the Indy arena football and hockey teams.
The Purdue starters for this match were OHs Wollard, Milller, Heaney and Moravec; MB Lulic; Setter T. Anderson; and Libero Kane. McAleer, A. Anderson and I believe D. Charles did not play due to some healing/health issues. I'm guessing there was a crowd of about 1000-1500, mostly Purdue fans in attendance for this game. In the first two sets, we fell behind by 5-6 points in both sets but then stormed back in both sets when V reached close to 20 points and we ended up wining the first two sets by 2 pts. The last two sets (they played one extra set) were not nearly as competitive and we won those sets by 5-7 points as I recall.
As many of you likely know, Wollard appears to be the featured OH this year, but there is no doubt in my mind that we will have a lot of options in this regard. During various stretches during the match Miller, Haeney and Moravic excelled and carried the team in the hitting. While our blocking appeared to be sub par during the early stages of the first two sets, it came on much stronger during the last portion of the first two sets as well as during last two sets. 6-5 Lulic had some great blocks and some nice kills as well during the match.
Of course, Anderson did a great job of setting and I thought Kane excelled at Libero as well.
All of the healthy players had some significant playing time. Shondell was the setter for most of the last two sets and did a nice job. Highly touted Freshman OH Tindell did not play in the first two sets but played almost all, if not all of the last two sets. I thought she played extremely well those sets and would be quite surprised is she doesn't end up starting or being a key part of the rotation.
It will be very interesting to see who will be the primary servers this year. I believe Kane, T. Anderson and McAlear (when healthy) will be an integral part of the serving rotation. However, in my opinion, we will have a lot of options in this regard. I thought Miller, Foster, Shondell and Tindall exhibited some very nice serving skills. I was particularly impressed with Foster's serve.
In regard to the Ignite vs. Rise match, the Rise ended up winning this exciting 5 set match. Lots of momentum changes in this match. I don't know if if was a sell out, but the arena look almost full and loud. The only former Boilers to get playing time was Grace Wade for the Ignite (who also served as Captain) and Jena Otec for the Rise. Colvin for the Rise must still be in the process of working her way into the rotation as a new comer.
I’m expecting some drop off this season with Purdue losing so many critical players to the portal but trust Coach Shondell will rebuild and maximize the talent he has to field a competitive team. Looking forward to Fall !