Purdue vs. Oral Roberts
Friday, Aug. 25 / 10 a.m. ET
Holloway Gymnasium / West Lafayette, Indiana
VolleyBrunch in Holloway: Once the doors open, free breakfast will be provided for fans while supplies last!
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Purdue vs. Cleveland State
Friday, Aug. 25 / 7:30 p.m. ET
Holloway Gymnasium / West Lafayette, Indiana
Block Party Tailgate: The Block Party will host a pregame tailgate outside Holloway Gymnasium starting at 6:00 p.m. ET with free pizza and drinks, tailgate games, music, and Block Party t-shirt pick-ups.
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Purdue vs. Alabama
Saturday, Aug. 26 / 3 p.m. ET
Holloway Gymnasium / West Lafayette, Indiana
Kickin' it Old School: Come out to Holloway Gymnasium and remember the 90's with your Purdue Boilermakers! We will be giving away Purdue Fanny Packs to the first 350 students!
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Boilermakers are set to kick off the 2017 season from the comforts of their own home with the 27th-annual Mortar Board Premier. Purdue opens the season as the 25th-ranked team in the nation and will host Oral Roberts, Cleveland State and Alabama on Aug. 25 and 26 in Hollloway Gymnasium. The start of the season marks the beginning of Dave Shondell, John Shondell and Kathy Jewell's 15th season together as a staff.
Purdue takes on Oral Roberts to begin the tournament at 10 a.m. ET Friday and finishes day one of competition with its match against Cleveland State at 7:30 p.m. The Vikings are the only team in the field other than Purdue that made the NCAA Tournament in 2016. Cleveland State fell to Arizona 3-0 in the opening round. The Boilermakers square off with Alabama Saturday at 3 p.m. in the final match of the tournament. The Crimson Tide has finished fourth or fifth in the SEC each of the last five seasons.
Purdue returns a great deal of talent and experience for the 2017 season with four seniors and five returning starters. Danielle Cuttino, Carissa Damler, Ashley Evans and Azariah Stahl make up the senior class and will lead Purdue on and off the court this season. Cuttino, Evans and Stahl are all three-year starters entering the 2017 campaign while Damler proved to be an essential piece to the backcourt in her breakthrough season a year ago.
Cuttino has posted back-to-back All-America campaigns, one as a middle blocker and one as an outside hitter. In her first season competing on the outside for the Boilermakers, the Indianapolis, Indiana, native registered 530 kills, 4.11 kills per set, 78 total blocks and a .272 hitting percentage in the nation's toughest conference. Her kill total was the most of any other Big Ten student-athlete and ranked 15th in the nation while her kills per set average ranked her third in the conference and 39th in the nation.
Evans set the offense to 1,403 assists and a 10.88 assists per set average, complemented by a team-leading 29 service aces, 267 digs, 107 kills and 58 blocks. She finished the 2016 season with the third most assists in the Big Ten and the fifth most assists in the nation while her assists per set average seated her fifth in the conference and 37th in the country.
The 2016 season was a big year for Stahl as well as it marked the first season she was on the floor for all six-rotations. Due to the increase in playing time, Stahl saw career-best numbers in kills (326), attempts (941), service aces (17), digs (305) and blocks (52). Her kill and dig totals were the second most on the team.
Damler enjoyed a breakthrough season a year ago in which she registered 232 digs and 11 services aces off the bench for Purdue. She and Brooke Peters stepped up in the loss of libero Natalie Haben when she missed time due to injury. Peters' 293 digs and 27 service aces in 2016, along with consistent play at a high level throughout the offseason and preseason has earned her the libero role to begin the season.
Rounding out the returning starters are Sherridan Atkinson and Blake Mohler. Atkinson, a redshirt junior, and Mohler, a redshirt sophomore, are both just entering their second seasons starting as Boilermakers and the duo will look to build on the successes they enjoyed a season ago. In her first season competing in the Big Ten, Atkinson threw down 268 kills and denied 73 of her opponents' attempts. She was arguably one of the best pin-hitters in the country the last seven matches of the season as she hit .395 with 82 kills and 20 errors on 157 swings. Mohler was the second middle blocker behind Faye Adelaja and earned 188 kills and a team-leading 117 blocks. Both were efficient offensively, hitting .263 and .299 respectively.
Filling in the second middle blocker spot this season will be Shavona Cuttino and newcomer Erin Williams. Redshirt sophomore Cuttino missed just about all of last season due to injury while Williams joins Purdue from Loyola Marymount as a junior.
The No. 20 recruiting class in the nation will support the team's efforts this season immediately as the four freshmen have impressed the staff throughout the offseason and preseason. Caitlyn Newton will be a contributor on the pins right away as she has been training with the team since January. Hayley Bush has showed off her talents all preseason long as the team's lone setter in the class. Julianna Reisinger and Jena Otec will compete for playing time right away in the backcourt as defensive specialists.
