MINNEAPOLIS - The No. 16 Boilermaker volleyball team fell to Minnesota in three sets Saturday night. The Golden Gophers won the match 25-21, 25-17, 25-16, while besting Purdue in blocks 13-4 and outhitting the Boilers .265 to .066.
Freshman Danielle Cuttino led the Boilermakers with 10 kills, hitting at a .529 clip. Juniors Sam Epenesa and Annie Drews followed with seven and six respectively. Senior Val Nichol and redshirt freshman Ashley Evans put down five kills apiece, while senior KiKi Jones added four.
Defensively, freshman Lydia Dimke pulled up a match-high 10 digs, while Nichol added nine saves and junior Amanda Neill posted seven. Jones paced Purdue at the net with three blocks.
Minnesota held off a late Purdue rally in a 25-21 Set 1 win, which featured three kills apiece from Nichol and Jones. The Gophers led 8-4 early, but Purdue rallied with five straight points, including an ace by Dimke to go ahead 9-8 and force a UM timeout. The teams tied at nine and then split the next 10 points leading to a 14-14 tie. Down 16-14, the Boilermakers scored three of the next points including a stuff and a kill by Drews to knot the score at 17. A 5-1 run put Minnesota ahead 22-18, but kills from Jones and Nichol and a stuff by the duo made it a one-point game at 22-21. Two Purdue miscues and a Gopher stuff, however, ended the set at 25-21.
The Boilermakers led early in Set 2, but could not overcome a mid-set rally by the Gophers in a 25-17 loss. Purdue opened the stanza with a 4-1 run, including a pair of putaways by Cuttino. The Gophers came back to tie it up at four. Two kills by Epenesa and a third by Nichol made it 8-7 Boilers, but Minnesota pulled away with an 8-0 run. The Boilermakers narrowed the gap to six at 16-10 and again at 23-17, but could not pull off a comeback. Evans had four kills in the stanza to lead the Boilers.
Minnesota led Set 3 from start to finish, hitting .438 while holding the Boilermakers at bay throughout. The Gophers took a 6-3 lead and did not allow Purdue closer than two points the rest of the way. Kills by Cuttino and Drews cut the margin to 8-6, but Minnesota scored six of the next seven to go up 14-7. A kill by Jones staved off the Gophers' first set point chance at 24-15, but it was not enough.
No. 16 Purdue (22-8, 12-6 Big Ten) returns to action at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Michigan State in East Lansing.