Fall in West Lafayette means its football volleyball season. Even though this team may be Coach Shondell’s youngest team coming into this season, they have quickly shown their talent, defeating #9 Stanford in Palo Alto and #4 Kansas within the span of one week. I was at their second game of the season against Washington State back in August, and I can tell you the difference is between the team now and then is night and day. Heck, their only loss so far was a 5 set game against a Top-25 Kentucky team in their 3rd game of the season.
Tonight, Purdue takes on rival Illinois to open conference play. With the game airing on BTN at 7pm and volleyball’s continued popularity, we decided to game thread this sucker. Illinois has been a little down this season and currently sit outside the Top 25, but they are still a tough opponent for Purdue and have matched up well against the Boilermakers in the past under head coach Kevin Hambly.
Given the proximity of both schools, visiting fans travel well. Illinois’ student section, the Spike Squad, will most likely be in attendance. Just like the Orange Crush, they like to dress in the opposing teams colors to blend in, only to take off those colors and reveal that ugly ass orange after the first point. (They’re actually a good group, just not a fan of the color, but not as bad as red.)
Since I know most of you don’t regularly watch volleyball, I’ll list the roster below for your convenience. Enjoy the game!
- #3 Brooke Peters, Sophomore, Defensive Specialist
- #5 Ashley Evans, RS Junior, Setter
- #7 Natalie Haben, Freshman, Defensive Specialist and Libero*
- #8 Lexi Dorn, Freshman, Setter
- #9 Shavona Cuttino, RS Freshman, Middle Blocker
- #10 Azariah Stahl, Junior, Outside Hitter
- #11 Carissa Damler, RS Sophomore, Defensive Specialist
- #13 Faye Adelaja, RS Senior, Middle Blocker
- #14 Olivia Van Zelst, Freshman, Defensive Specialist
- #15 Lennea Rohrsen, Junior, Defensive Specialist
- #16 Sherridan Atkinson, RS Sophomore, Outside Hitter
- #17 Blake Mohler, RS Freshman, Middle Blocker
- #20 Danielle Cuttino, Junior, Middle Blocker
*A libero is “a player specialized in defensive skills: the libero must wear a contrasting jersey color from his or her teammates and cannot block or attack the ball when it is entirely above net height. When the ball is not in play, the libero can replace any back-row player, without prior notice to the officials. This replacement does not count against the substitution limit each team is allowed per set, although the libero may be replaced only by the player whom he or she replaced.”