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Wow, Purdue sweeps #8 Minnesota 3-0

DocRon

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Aug 15, 2001
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Purdue was behind in each set but came back each time, winning the final set 32-30. Wonderful service game and great defense. The most amazing thing is that our regular setter, Megan Renner, was out with a concussion and NIU transfer Grace Balensiefer, in her first Big Ten game, was magnificent subing in on short notice. Speaking of short notice, she is only 5’10 (at most) and was facing Carter Booth, a 6’7” middle blocker, for much of the game.

Looking at stats, Eva Hudson was again incomparable with 21 kills hitting 0.364%. Hannah Clayton had an impressive game seeming to come up with the dagger-in-the heart kill when we needed one. She only had 8 total kills but just 1 error for a hitting % of 0.467 and she lead Purdue with 4 blocks.

All and all a fantastic game with fingernails chewing 3rd set that just went on and on. Also a game that displayed what a great coach Shondell and his staff are. What a shame if you like VB but missed this one.
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Purdue was behind in each set but came back each time, winning the final set 32-30. Wonderful service game and great defense. The most amazing thing is that our regular setter, Megan Renner, was out with a concussion and NIU transfer Grace Balensiefer, in her first Big Ten game, was magnificent subing in on short notice. Speaking of short notice, she is only 5’10 (at most) and was facing Carter Booth, a 6’7” middle blocker, for much of the game.

Looking at stats, Eva Hudson was again incomparable with 21 kills hitting 0.364%. Hannah Clayton had an impressive game seeming to come up with the dagger-in-the heart kill when we needed one. She only had 8 total kills but just 1 error for a hitting % of 0.467 and she lead Purdue with 4 blocks.

All and all a fantastic game with fingernails chewing 3rd set that just went on and on. Also a game that displayed what a great coach Shondell and his staff are. What a shame if you like VB but missed this one.
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Thanks for the update on Renner. We were at the match and wondering why she wasn’t playing.
 
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That was exactly the type of match that stephanie samedy would have taken over whenever we got to 20. Minnesota has some really good players but no one was prime time against us like Samedy!

hudson, Clayton, balenseifer and Koch had probably their best matches and Colvin, hornung and schermerhorn (and Ellis before she got pulled) also had very good matches.
 
Purdue was behind in each set but came back each time, winning the final set 32-30. Wonderful service game and great defense. The most amazing thing is that our regular setter, Megan Renner, was out with a concussion and NIU transfer Grace Balensiefer, in her first Big Ten game, was magnificent subing in on short notice. Speaking of short notice, she is only 5’10 (at most) and was facing Carter Booth, a 6’7” middle blocker, for much of the game.

Looking at stats, Eva Hudson was again incomparable with 21 kills hitting 0.364%. Hannah Clayton had an impressive game seeming to come up with the dagger-in-the heart kill when we needed one. She only had 8 total kills but just 1 error for a hitting % of 0.467 and she lead Purdue with 4 blocks.

All and all a fantastic game with fingernails chewing 3rd set that just went on and on. Also a game that displayed what a great coach Shondell and his staff are. What a shame if you like VB but missed this one.
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Great game! I actually think the offense ran better with Grace…. It will be interesting to see who plays Sunday. Meg is a good player too but lacking the experience Grace has….
 
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Great game! I actually think the offense ran better with Grace…. It will be interesting to see who plays Sunday. Meg is a good player too but lacking the experience Grace has….
I don’t want a setter controversy but I tend to agree. Renner has gotten more comfortable since the start of the season and is much taller, better blocker and a bit more aggressive on 2nd balls.

hard to deny the team has a different energy with balensiefer.
 
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Great game! I actually think the offense ran better with Grace…. It will be interesting to see who plays Sunday. Meg is a good player too but lacking the experience Grace has….
Coach has said on several occasions that he would like to play Balensiefer more but is concerned his opponents will take advantage of her lack of stature. The TV commentators last night questioned why Minnesota did not do that. To them it did not look like they even tried and I agree.
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I don’t want a setter controversy but I tend to agree. Renner has gotten more comfortable since the start of the season and is much taller, better blocker and a bit more aggressive on 2nd balls.

hard to deny the team has a different energy with balensiefer.
Agree
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I envy you being there. Was that the loudest you have ever heard Holloway? It sounded thundering on TV and especially on the radio broadcast.
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I think a few matches last year were louder, vs. Wisconsin for one. But it was loud! I took my daughter and granddaughter to the match. They used my season tickets near mid court, and I bought an extra ticket off Stub Hub. The extra ticket turned out to be directly next to the band’s drum section. Fortunately there was an open seat next to my daughter and granddaughter, so I quickly moved over there. But the time spent next to the drum section probably influenced my perception of loud for the rest of the night.
Suprisingly although it didn’t look like it on tv, there were plenty of empty seats.
 
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I envy you being there. Was that the loudest you have ever heard Holloway? It sounded thundering on TV and especially on the radio broadcast.
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There were several long rallies that the Boilers eventually won, and the roof was closing to coming off after those points. Eva Hudson will be amazing if she continues to improve through to her senior year. She is really outstanding when the system breaks down, and her cross court kills are tough to defend! Hannah Clayton had an outstanding game last night, and between she and Eva, we have not lost anything with the graduation of Jael Johnson and Grace Cleveland.
 
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Purdue was behind in each set but came back each time, winning the final set 32-30. Wonderful service game and great defense. The most amazing thing is that our regular setter, Megan Renner, was out with a concussion and NIU transfer Grace Balensiefer, in her first Big Ten game, was magnificent subing in on short notice. Speaking of short notice, she is only 5’10 (at most) and was facing Carter Booth, a 6’7” middle blocker, for much of the game.

Looking at stats, Eva Hudson was again incomparable with 21 kills hitting 0.364%. Hannah Clayton had an impressive game seeming to come up with the dagger-in-the heart kill when we needed one. She only had 8 total kills but just 1 error for a hitting % of 0.467 and she lead Purdue with 4 blocks.

All and all a fantastic game with fingernails chewing 3rd set that just went on and on. Also a game that displayed what a great coach Shondell and his staff are. What a shame if you like VB but missed this one.
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Grace Balensiefer got the 31st point in the third game with a setter kill, and the decibel level helped the Boilers to the 32nd point.
 
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There were several long rallies that the Boilers eventually won, and the roof was closing to coming off after those points. Eva Hudson will be amazing if she continues to improve through to her senior year. She is really outstanding when the system breaks down, and her cross court kills are tough to defend! Hannah Clayton had an outstanding game last night, and between she and Eva, we have not lost anything with the graduation of Jael Johnson and Grace Cleveland.
We also lost libero Otec and DS Marissa Hornung from last year but this year’s back row defenders have done an excellent job replacing them so far. This year’s group is a little quicker. Plus libero Schemerhorn can overhand set the ball when the setter is taken out by digging the ball. Otec was a very good libero but could not do an overhand set.
 
I think a few matches last year were louder, vs. Wisconsin for one. But it was loud! I took my daughter and granddaughter to the match. They used my season tickets near mid court, and I bought an extra ticket off Stub Hub. The extra ticket turned out to be directly next to the band’s drum section. Fortunately there was an open seat next to my daughter and granddaughter, so I quickly moved over there. But the time spent next to the drum section probably influenced my perception of loud for the rest of the night.
Suprisingly although it didn’t look like it on tv, there were plenty of empty seats.
Shondell has asked for a way to be able to fill those empty seats…like airline double booking. Sucks that the venue is sold out, there is more demand and seats go unfilled.

it is the relatively cheap season ticket prices that make it easy to commit the money and not make it to all of the games.

need a better way for season ticket holders to turn back their tickets for resale … or make them available to knuckleheads!
 
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I envy you being there. Was that the loudest you have ever heard Holloway? It sounded thundering on TV and especially on the radio broadcast.
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Shondell has asked for a way to be able to fill those empty seats…like airline double booking. Sucks that the venue is sold out, there is more demand and seats go unfilled.

it is the relatively cheap season ticket prices that make it easy to commit the money and not make it to all of the games.

need a better way for season ticket holders to turn back their tickets for resale … or make them available to knuckleheads!
I went to Shondell’s pre match briefing for the fans prior to the Ball State match. He addressed the issue of empty seats in a sold out gymnasium and said he’s talked to the ticket office about possibly making additional tickets available once the match has started.
 
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We also lost libero Otec and DS Marissa Hornung from last year but this year’s back row defenders have done an excellent job replacing them so far. This year’s group is a little quicker. Plus libero Schemerhorn can overhand set the ball when the setter is taken out by digging the ball. Otec was a very good libero but could not do an overhand set.
Marissa'a sister, Ali, was ranked 12th in her class (per PrepVolleyball Mag) coming out of high school so, after a somewhat disappointing freshman year (except for her services), she is coming around as Dave hoped.
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I went to Shondell’s pre match briefing for the fans prior to the Ball State match. He addressed the issue of empty seats in a sold out gymnasium and said he’s talked to the ticket office about possibly making additional tickets available once the match has started.
If there was a better “standing room only” access area, those people could filter in to empty seats after the match had started.

Covid is still a thing (just getting over my first bout) so a little extra space still not a bad thing.
 
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For those interested but who have not seen it, this is a very good article from Volleyball Mag with some good opinions from Dave that I had not heard before. It was written just before last night's match and there is no subscription required.

Purdue enters B1G play with freshman-laden revamped lineup
Thanks Doc. It is refreshing to see how other folks are gravitating positively to your excellent postings! :)
 
Coach has said on several occasions that he would like to play Balensiefer more but is concerned his opponents will take advantage of her lack of stature. The TV commentators last night questioned why Minnesota did not do that. To them it did not look like they even tried and I agree.
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100% agree. I was waiting for Minny to do just that but it never occurred or we compensated somehow.…
 
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