Oct. 4, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Another match meant another exciting ending for the No. 9 Boilermaker volleyball team as Purdue defeated Indiana 3-0 Wednesday night. The Boilermakers scored 17 of the last 24 points in the match to eek out of University Gym with a 30-24, 30-26, 30-27 win.
Sophomore Danita Merlau (New Palestine, Ind.) posted a match-high 17 kills to lead the Purdue offense, while junior Sam Mader (Algonquin, Ill.) and senior Brittany Dildine (West Lafayette, Ind.) added kill tallies of nine and eight respectively. Dildine also led the Boilermaker defense with 16 digs and served up one of the team's three aces.
Indiana led 4-2 in the early stages of Game 1. The teams split the next 14 points, leading to an 11-9 score. Purdue then put together a 5-2 run to take its first lead of the night at 14-13. Merlau, junior Lizzie Jacques Winfield, Ill.) and Dildine tallied kills during the stretch. The Boilermakers held the lead until the Hoosiers scored two in a row to turn a 17-16 deficit into an 18-17 advantage. The lead change sparked a 4-0 run for the Boilermakers including kills by Mader and Merlau, which made it 21-18. IU remained close, pulling within one on four occasions, last at 25-24, before Purdue rattled off five points in a row to cap the game. Lynch racked up her fourth block of the game to make it 27-24, before Dildine served up an ace to give the Boilermakers the 30-24 win.
The Boilermakers went up 5-2 to start Game 2, including an ace by Miller, but the Hoosiers tied the score at 5-5 shortly thereafter. Purdue maintained control until IU turned a 7-5 deficit into an 11-8 lead after a handful of Boilermaker miscues. Down by three, Purdue scored six in a row, including two solo blocks by Lynch, to take a three-point lead of its own at 14-11. The teams tied at 17 and 18, but the Boilermakers answered the last tie with three straight points, including a kill by Jacques to make it 21-18. Indiana called its final timeout of the game at 26-22, then scored four of the next six points to cut the Purdue lead to two at 28-26. The Boilermakers shook off the effort, closing the game at 30-26 with a solo block by Jacques and a game-winning ace by Sam Gray (Indianapolis, Ind.).
The Hoosiers took a 5-3 lead in Game 3 before allowing the Boilermakers to tie it up at 5-5 after a pair of hitting miscues. From there, Indiana caught fire, scoring 14 of the next 21 points, to take an eight-point lead at 20-12, forcing Purdue to take its second and final timeout. The break was all the Boilermakers needed to snap out of the funk they were in, as the team registered a 14-5 run to nullify the deficit and gave itself a 26-25 advantage. Four different players accounted for kills in the stretch, including three each by Mader and Merlau. The Hoosiers tied the score at 27, but it was not enough as Merlau, Mader and Dildine posted three-straight kills to close out the match with a 30-27 win. Merlau chalked up eight kills in the stanza.
The Boilermakers (14-2, 4-1 Big Ten) return to action at 8 p.m. (EST) on Saturday when they take on the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City, Iowa.