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Purdue Volleyball Makes 20th NCAA Tournament

Purdue finished sixth in a top-heavy Big Ten this season as they earned their 13th appearance under Head Coach Dave Shondell.

By rachelvan4
Purdue Volleyball

Purdue finished the regular season with a 23-8 record, 12-8 in the Big Ten. Purdue only ever lost one match to a team with a lower RPI than them, Michigan, and only posted one upset themselves as they beat Penn State on the road.

Purdue will play in the #10 Kentucky sub-regional. In the first round, they’ll face East Tennessee State on November 30th. The other matchup will be #10 Kentucky versus Murray State. The second round match between the winners will be on December 1st.

Purdue missed out on hosting after failing to rack up many RPI Top 50 wins. Purdue was tied for 16th with Creighton in this week’s RPI. This season Purdue went 1-8 versus the RPI Top 25, 1-0 versus 26-50, and 12-0 versus 51-100.

Purdue’s chances of getting a seed and hosting the first weekend were hampered by a weak non-conference slate, weak bottom half of the conference, and lack of upsets. Purdue’s early-season win over Alabama didn’t hold up down the stretch as the Crimson Tide finished seventh in the SEC and Notre Dame didn’t crack the RPI Top 50 as they finished sixth in the ACC. The bottom seven teams in the league were all ranked 50+. The last four seeded teams all had four or more RPI Top 50 wins. Purdue played their worst match of the season in their lone matchup against Michigan and let a road win against Wisconsin slip through their fingers. If Purdue wins those matches they most likely are seeded and get to host.

The Top Sixteen Seeds are as follows:

  1. Stanford
  2. Minnesota
  3. Illinois
  4. BYU
  5. Texas
  6. Wisconsin
  7. Nebraska
  8. Penn State
  9. Creighton
  10. Kentucky
  11. USC
  12. Pitt
  13. UCF
  14. Marquette
  15. Oregon
  16. Washington State.

In addition to the top seeds and Purdue, Michigan made the field representing the Big Ten. The Pac-12 put eight teams into the tournament.

The Final Four will be played at the Target Center in Minneapolis December 13th with the National Championship on December 15th. The full bracket can be found here.

Check back later in the week a full tournament and weekend preview.

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