ST. LOUIS ââ'¬" The No. 24 Boilermakers suffered their first loss of the 2015 Saturday afternoon, falling 3-0 to No. 12 BYU. The Cougars won the match 25-17, 25-21, 25-20.
Senior Annie Drews paced Purdue with 14 kills, while redshirt junior Faye Adelaja added nine and sophomore Danielle Cuttino chipped in six. Adelaja hit at a team-best .643 clip with nine kills in 14 swings and no errors. Cuttino and Adelaja each put up three blocks to lead the Boilermakers at the net as Purdue outblocked BYU 6-5.
Defensively, redshirt sophomore Ashley Evans paced the team with 10 digs to go with her 27 assists. Senior Amanda Neill and freshman Brooke Peters each added eight digs. Peters and Evans also served up two aces apiece.
Adelaja racked up a team-best five kills and the Boilermakers put up three blocks, but Purdue dropped Set 1 25-17 despite a late rally. The teams split the opening six points, before BYU took a 7-3 lead. The Boilermakers called timeout and scored three straight on kills by Adelaja and Drews and a Cougar error. BYU rallied to go up by 10 at 18-8. Down 10 again at 23-13, Purdue kicked off a 4-0 run with a solo block by Adelaja. A block by Cuttino and Evans, a kill by Epenesa and a BYU miscue made it 23-17 and forced a timeout. A Cougar kill and Purdue hitting error capped the set at 25-17.
The Boilermakers jumped out to a 5-2 lead in Set 2 and led by as many as four before a late BYU rally turned the tables in a 25-21 loss. Three kills by Drews, one by Adelaja and a couple Cougar miscues made it 7-3 Purdue, but BYU eventually tied it up at 10. A Drews kill and an ace by Peters put the Boilermakers back on top and they stretched the lead to three at 17-14 with a pair of Adelaja blocks and putdowns by Adelaja and Drews. A kill by Cuttino made it 19-16 Purdue, but that sparked an 8-0 run for the Cougars. Down 24-19, the Boilermakers got a kill from Cuttino and another ace from Peters to keep the set going, but a service error wrapped up the stanza. Drews had six kills in the set, while Adelaja added four. Purdue outhit BYU .281 to .273 in the set.
Purdue scored the first two points of Set 2 on a block and a kill by sophomore Azariah Stahl, but soon trailed 5-2. A kill by Drews and a pair of BYU errors knotted the score at five. It was a one-point game at 10-9 after kills by Drews and Cuttino, but the Cougars pulled away, scoring seven of the next eight points. Trailing 17-10, the Boilermakers countered with a 9-3 run to slice the margin to one at 20-19. Evans served up an ace, while Cuttino, Drews and senior Sam Epenesa tallied kills in the rally. A controversial touch call prevented Purdue from tying the score at 20, and BYU went on to score five of the final six to close out the match. Drews had five kills in the final stanza.
The No. 24 Boilermakers (4-1) wrap up the weekend with an 8 p.m. ET contest with the host Saint Louis Billikens.