Purdue Volleyball: Stacey Clark Classic Preview

Before No. 19 Purdue (5-0) hits the road for Alabama next weekend they’ll face one of their toughest non-conference opponents, Louisville, in their last home tournament. Louisville and Alabama have been receiving votes in the coaches poll, but neither has cracked the top 25 yet.

Before the match with Louisville, Purdue will play Xavier Friday morning at 10:00 A.M. then Lipscomb at 7:30 Friday night. Saturday night at 7:30 will be the showdown with Cardinals; all matches will be on BTN+.

Purdue

The Boilers picked up a win over a likely RPI top 50 foe in Notre Dame last weekend in four sets. While Purdue did come away with the win, some weaknesses were revealed. Purdue struggled at times to generate points on their own and capitalize on free balls. Purdue also never found a good rhythm on offense, at times getting away from using Sherridan Atkinson and their middles, namely Blake Mohler. Purdue will need points from all their hitters as they won’t be able to rely on free points from the Cardinals, but they especially need to keep feeding Atkinson in system and go to Mohler as often as they can.

Key Players

class, height, position, # name , stats

Positions: MB- middle blocker, OH- outside hitter, RS- right side hitter, DS- defensive specialist, L- libero, S- setter

Stats: K/S- kills/set, B/S- blocks/set, D/S- digs/set. .000- hitting percentage, A/S- assists/set SA/S- service aces/set (statistical rank nationally)

Rs Fr. 5’10 S 2 Hayley Bush- 11.4 A/S (17)

Sr. 5’9 L 3 Brooke Peters- 5.35 D/S (27), 0.53 SA/S (38)

So. 6’1 OH 4 Caitlyn Newton- 2.65 K/S

So. 5’6 DS 6 Julianna Reisinger- 0.65 SA/S (18)

Fr. 5’7 DS 10 Marissa Hornung- 2.88 D/S

Sr. 6’5 OH/RS 16 Sherridan Atkinson- 4.71 K/S (12), .326, 0.47 SA/S

Jr. 6’2 M 17 Blake Mohler- 2.53 K/S, .425 (28), 1.35 B/S (44)

Fr. 6’3 MB 20 Grace Cleveland- 2.41 K/S, .254

Xavier

The Musketeers are 1-4 on the season dropping three matches against Power Five schools; their only victory came over Northern Illinois. Xavier hits fairly clean. 273, 27th best in the country, however it hasn’t translated to wins. One reason is weak serving, they average only one ace a set, and they don’t defend well either.

Key Players

So. 5’8 S 2 Nadia Dieudonne- 5.18 A/S

Sr. 5’9 OH 4 Laura Grossman- 3.41 K/S, .282, 2.29 D/S, 0.35 SA/S

So. 6’2 MB 5 Audrey Adams*- 2.0 K/S, .418 (32), 0.82 B/S

Sr. 5’7 L 6 Meredith Klare- 3.59 D/S

Sr. 5’9 S 16 McKena Estes*- 5.29 A/S

Fr. 6’0 OH 17 Norah Painter- 2.87 K/S, .284

*Adams and Estes are both from Indianapolis where they attended Cathedral and Brebeuf Jesuit respectively. Teammate Madi Kutruff hails from Martinsville.

Lipscomb

The Bison are 3-2 on the season picking up wins over SMU, Iowa, and San Diego State. Lipscomb is led by the reigning two-time ASun Player of the Year, Carlyle Nusbaum, but they don’t have many other options around her. She’ll get her kills, but as long as no one else has a big night for Lipscomb, Purdue should manage just fine.

Key Players

So. 6’0 OH 1 Megan Kuper- 2.0 K/S, .292

Sr. 5’10 OH 3 Lauren Anderson- 3.28 D/S, 0.28 SA/S

Sr. 5’8 S 9 Marcella Emmanuelli- 5.15 A/S

Jr. 5’11 S 10 Morgan Elmore- 6.56 A/S

Sr. 5’10 OH 12 Carlyle Nusbaum- 4.22 K/S (37), .246, 2.39 D/S

Sr. 6’0 MB 14 Ca’Layci Coffey- 1.11 B/S

12.78 K .223 12.11 A 1.0 SA 12.78 D 2.28 B

13.44 K .239 12.61 A 0.94 SA 13.5 D 2.11 B

Louisville

To this point Louisville has beat who they’re supposed to lost to teams ranked higher than them giving them a 4-2 record with losses against then No. 7 USC and No. 4 Florida taking one set from the Gators. Louisville does a lot of things well and don’t make a lot of errors. They boast the seventh most efficient offense in the country, hitting .298. Melanie McHenry leads the way for Louisville offensively but they’re very balanced. Defensively, the Cardinals are strong along the net, although Wilma Rivera is undersized which should help Purdue’s outside hitters. Louisville also features one of the top liberos this season in Molly Sauer. Purdue cannot afford to make mistakes and will need to be crisp in serve receive to get past the Cardinals.

Key Players

Sr. 5’11 L 1 Molly Sauer- 4.32 D/S, 0.37 SA/S

So. 6’2 MB 5 Piper Roe- .333, 1.0 B/S

Jr. 6’2 OH 10 Melanie McHenry*- 3.26 K/S, .225, 2.21 D/S

Sr. 5’10 S 12 Wilma Rivera- 11.0 A/S (32), 2.21 D/S, 0.37 SA/S

Jr. 6’1 OH/RS 14 Megan Sloan*- 2.67 K/S, .363

Jr. 6’1 OH 18 Amanda Green- 2.42 K/S, 0.84 B/S

Sr. 6’2 MB 25 Jasmine Bennett- 2.79 K/S, .511 (5), .1.05 B/S

*Louisville has three athletes from Indiana; McHenry is from Speedway, Sloan went to Cathedral, and Marijke Van Dyke is from Munster. Louisville Assistant Coach Todd Chamberlain played at Ball State and coached with Steve Shondell at Burris High School in Muncie and with the Munciana club.

Big Ten Honors

Purdue got a career best performance from libero Brooke Peters when she posted 30 digs against the Irish which led to the conference honor. She led the defense in limiting Oakland and Notre Dame to sub .170 hitting.

AVCA Rankings Week 2

1. Minnesota (35)
2. Wisconsin (6)
3. BYU (7)
4. Stanford (8)
5. Penn State (4)

7. Nebraska (3)

11. Illinois

19. Purdue

20. Michigan

RV Michigan State