WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The No. 22 Boilermakers got career-high offensive outputs from sophomores Danielle Cuttino and Lydia Dimke and a stellar blocking effort from redshirt senior Kaisley Fisher in a 3-0 sweep of South Dakota on Friday morning to kick off the Boiler Box Challenge. Purdue won the match 26-24, 25-19, 25-21 over the Coyotes in a match which pitted Dimke against her sister Sydney, an outside hitter for USD.
Dimke paced the Boilermaker attack with a career-best 14 kills, while hitting at a .310 clip and adding a career-high three blocks, while Cuttino chalked up 11 kills, while hitting .625 and adding four blocks. Senior Annie Drews added seven kills, while Fisher chipped in five kills and six stuffs. Redshirt sophomore setter Ashley Evans contributed four kill, four digs and four blocks.
Defensively, senior libero Amanda Neill led the way with 12 digs, followed by freshman Brooke Peters (9), senior Kate Workman (8) and freshman Alexa Smith (8). The Boilermakers outhit the Coyotes .289 to .168.
Drews got things rolling for the Boilermakers, chalking up six kills in a 26-24 win in Set 1, while Dimke and Cuttino combined for seven kills and Fisher put up three blocks. South Dakota took an early 4-2 lead, but the Boilermakers scored four straight, including an ace by Work, and a kill by Neill, to push ahead 6-5. The Coyotes answered with a 5-1 run to go up 9-7. Purdue trailed by as many three at 20-17 in the stanza after that despite tying the score at 13, 14 and 15. Down three again at 22-19, Evans supplied a kill and USD had a hitting error to make it a one-point game. South Dakota called timeout and got a block out of the break, but Purdue wrapped up the stanza with five of the final six points, capped by an Evans ace.
The Boilermakers racked up six blocks in a 25-19 Set 2 win, which saw seven players get in on the offensive action. Dimke put down four balls, while Fisher and Cuttino added three apiece in the stanza as Purdue outhit USD .375 to .132. Purdue scored first on a block by Fisher and Drews, but soon found itself trailing 4-1. The Boilermakers narrowed the gap to one at 5-4 and 6-5, before a block and a kill by Dimke put them on top 7-6. A pair of aces by Sydney Dimke gave USD the 9-7 lead. Down 10-8, Purdue scored five straight, including a kill and three stuffs by Fisher, to stretch the lead to 13-10 and force a Coyote timeout. South Dakota cut the margin to one at 15-14, but Purdue quickly upped the lead to six at 22-16 as Dimke and Cuttino tallied kills. A USD service error followed by a Peters' ace clinched the set.
Dimke poured on six more kills in Set 3, while Cuttino added five in a 25-21 win to secure the sweep. Purdue scored the first four points of the set on kills by Fisher, Dimke and senior Sam Epenesa as well as a block by Epenesa and Cuttino. The Boilermakers upped the advantage to 9-3 as Epenesa, Cuttino and Smith added putaways. A couple of Purdue miscues got South Dakota within three at 9-6, but DImke added two kills and Smith chipped in one as well to make it 13-7 Boilermakers. Up just three again at 13-10, Purdue scored eight of the next 10 points, including three Cuttino kills as well as an ace by Neill, to stretch the advantage to nine at 21-12. South Dakota did not go away, instead answering with a 9-2 run of its own to slash the Boilermaker lead to just two at 23-21. Four Purdue miscues aided the Coyote effort. A kill from Dimke set up Purdue's first match point attempt and a USD hitting error ended the contest.
The No. 22 Boilermakers (7-2) return to action at 7:30 p.m. when they face off with Ball State (6-6). The contest will pit Dave and John Shondell's Purdue team against their brother Steve's Cardinal squad. It is Celebrate Indiana Night, offering $2 admission to all Indiana government employees. Block Party tank tops also will be given away to the first 250 students in attendance.