Nov. 5, 2011
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The No. 11 Boilermaker volleyball team won its seventh-straight match with a 3-0 sweep of Northwestern on Saturday night. Purdue won the match 25-17, 25-15, 25-14 with a balanced offense and a tough defensive effort both at the net and in the backcourt.
The Boilermakers outblocked Northwestern 11-4 and held the Wildcats to a .077 hitting effort. Purdue hit at a .295 clip and saw four hitters put down more than five kills apiece.
Junior Ariel Turner paced the offense with 14 kills, while hitting at a .324 clip and chipping in nine digs and three blocks. Freshman Kierra Jones turned in seven kills and a team-leading five blocks, while senior Tiffany Fisher put down seven kills and added four blocks. Freshman Val Nichol followed with five kills and four blocks, including two solo stuffs. Redshirt sophomore Katie Griffin added four kills in the final stanza.
Redshirt senior Blair Bashen led the Boilermaker backcourt with 12 digs, followed by Turner (9) and senior Emily Ehlers (9). Redshirt sophomore Rachel Davis and sophomore Hilliary Fox added six digs apiece.
Purdue opened the night with a 25-17 Set 1 victory, which included five blocks and saw the Wildcats hit just .049. The Boilermakers raced out to a 9-4 lead in Set 1, thanks to a 7-1 run including four NU miscues and two solo stuffs and a kill by Nichol. Northwestern narrowed the gap to two at 11-9, but could not hold off a Purdue rally that made it 22-12. Fisher teamed up on a pair of blocks and Turner put down two kills in the stretch. The Wildcats would not go quietly though, scoring five of the next six to pull within six at 23-17. A kill by Jones and a stuff by Joens and Turner capped the stanza.
Set 2 saw the Boilermakers lead by as many as 11 and Turner pounded down seven kills en route to a 25-15 victory. Purdue scored the first four points of the stanza, three on Turner putaways, and went on to a 12-4 lead, including an ace by redshirt sophomore Catherine Rebarchak and a pair of stuffs. A pair of Northwestern kills slowed the Boilermakers momentarily, but Purdue soon led 15-6 forcing NU to use its final timeout. The Wildcats scored the first two points out of the break, but the Boilermakers countered with five of the next six to go up 20-9. A solo stuff by Nichol made it 23-13, but Northwestern held Purdue at bay with a kill and a block. A Turner kill put Purdue on the hill and a Wildcat hitting error clinched the set.
The final set was much of the same as the Boilermakers got four offensive players involved in a 25-14 win. Purdue scored six straight to start the set, including a pair of blocks, forcing an NU timeout. The Boilermakers soon led 13-3 thanks to Wildcat miscues, kills by Fisher, Turner, Griffin and Jones and an ace by Bashen. Northwestern scored four of the next five to make it 14-7, but Purdue stretched the lead to 19-11 as Griffin added two more kills and NU errors piled up. Fisher and Griffin added more kills and Jones and Davis teamed up on a block as Purdue went ahead 23-13. A hitting error made it 24-13, but Northwestern managed one more kill before Jones closed out the match at 25-14.
No. 11 Purdue (22-3, 11-3 Big Ten) returns to action at 7 p.m. Thursday when the team faces Iowa. The Boilermakers are off to their best record through 25 matches since 1985 (23-2) and are 11-3 in the Big Ten for the first time since 1990.