Great teams usually have their A game and can find ways to win with their B game. Purdue had their C game ready against the Spartans on Wednesday; the only time they looked remotely like a top-10 side was in the last nine points of set four, which turned a 16-16 tie into a 25-16 set win. Not even I Believe could help them carry that over into the deciding set, and any remote hopes of hosting a regional went out the door with that 2-3 loss.

Saturday wasn’t nearly as bad; in fact, the Good Gals looked like they were going to run the hosts off the court, leading 23-13 in the opening set. Unfortunately, Nebraska woke up, and while they couldn’t stop Purdue from taking that one, they did grab the next three.

As a result, the Boilers dropped to 12th in AVCA and 13th in Massey, sitting in a three-way tie with Ohio State and Illinois, two teams they have already split with. Still on the schedule: Nebraska twice, Wisconsin twice, and Minnesota on the road. Purdue really needs to get one or two of those home matches - 11-9 in conference play would be understandable, but 10 losses is a lot for a seeded team, and it’d be a shame for these athletes to miss out on two more NCAA matches in Holloway in December.

Purdue 2, Michigan State 3

Personnel

Jael Johnson missed this match too; Marissa Hornung played sparingly, mostly as a serving specialist, with Maddie Schermerhorn moving up to the starting DS role and Ali Hornung taking Maddie’s spot. Emma Ellis and Maddie Koch were the two OHs behind Caitlyn Newton, and Emma Terwilliger played in one set and recorded a dig.

Recap

Due to time constraints, I’m skipping the recaps. Yes, it’s partly because they were not fun in real time and less fun to review.

Stats

Purdue was outplayed in every category but digs: attack (62 at .208 to 67 at .313), aces (4-7), blocks (7-9) and assists (58-63); the Boilers had a 69-56 advantage in digs.

Newton led Purdue with 22 kills at .164; Cleveland added 16 at .244. Bush had her usual double-double with a match-high 53 assists and nearly a team-high 15 digs, plus an ace (+1). Newton (+1), Cleveland (even) and Schermerhorn (even) had the other aces. Raven Colvin had the only solo block for the Boilers, and she tied Taylor Trammell with 2.0 total blocks. Jena Otec squeaked past Bush with 16 digs; Schermerhorn added a career-high 12.

The prolific Spartan attack was led by sophomore OH Sarah Franklin, who led all players with 25 kills and hit .386; junior OH Cecilee Max-Brown (17 at .316) and senior MB Naya Gros (10 at .471) joined her in double figures. Assists were split between freshman setter Julia Bishop (28) and sophomore setter Celia Cullen (27); Bishop also had 10 digs for her own double-double. Franklin (2/-2) and Bishop (2/+1) had four of the seven aces, with junior OH Biamba Kabengele (2/even) and Max-Brown (1/-2) serving the others. MSU did not record a solo block; junior MB Emma Monks had five block assists for a match-high 2.5 total, with Gros, Kabengele and Cullen all getting 4 for 2.0 total, and Max-Brown capped her night by taking match honors with 18 digs for a double-double as well.

Purdue 1, Nebraska 3

Personnel

Marissa no longer had her left quad wrapped, not sure how close to 100% she was but it must have been more than she was against MSU. Johnson also returned from whatever-it-was after missing several matches and played two of the four sets, with Trammell and Colvin playing in all four. Maddy Chinn played in three sets, Koch in two, and Ali Hornung in two.

Recap

See above.

Stats

Purdue’s block was back to normal Saturday, recording a massive 16-7 advantage, but in all other categories Nebraska was the clear leader: attack (39 at .123 to 64 at .214), aces (1-6), assists (38-59) and digs (62-70).

Once again, Newton led Purdue’s attack, and once again, it took a lot of attempts to get double-digit kills, with Caitlyn more than doubling the next-best Boiler at 16 but hitting just .096 for the match. Bush had 34 assists but did not get a double-double; the only ace this time was from Ali Hornung (+1). Colvin had 2 solo blocks and 7 assists for 5.5 total, a career best for her; Trammell followed close behind with 3.5 and Cleveland added 3.0. Otec led everyone with 25 digs and Marissa added 11 in her return.

Nebraska’s attack was extremely balanced, with four players posting between 13 and 15 kills: junior OH Madi Kubik (15 at .125), senior MB Kayla Caffey (14 at .619), senior MB Lauren Stivrins (14 at .393) and freshman OH Lindsay Krause (13 at .313). Senior setter Nicklin Hames led everyone with 48 assists and added 17 digs for a double-double, plus a match-high 3 aces (+1); junior DS Kenzie Knuckles (Yorktown/Yorktown HS, 2/-1) and sophomore setter Anni Evans (1/+1) served the others. Caffey had Nebraska’s lone solo block, while Stivrins had 5 assists to lead the Huskers with 2.5 total blocks. Freshman libero Lexi Rodriguez has 24 digs, and Kubik had 10 for a double-double of her own.

Overall thoughts

The Wednesday loss was stunning, as much because Purdue didn’t seem to have any answers as anything else. The offense was out of sync, the defense was out of position, and the coaching staff didn’t seem to have any response other than to keep doing what they were doing. Granted, Johnson was still out and Marissa was still limited, but there were other folks on the bench who seemingly could have come in for a rotation. I’m sure there was a reason for it, but it seemed to defeat the purpose of having a deeper roster - the idea should be that you can try different things when something’s not working right, and on Wednesday, that was definitely the case.

An upset Saturday would have been great, but that was asking a lot from a team that really hasn’t been playing that well for a while. Hopefully once Jael gets back to 100%, Purdue will return to its early-season form, because right now, they look like their usual middle-of-the-pack conference team, and that’s too bad.

Conference standings

Nebraska remained unbeaten with a sweep of Iowa and the match listed above; Wisconsin kept pace with an impressive home weekend, edging Penn State to wrap it up; the Nittany Lions were coming off a solid sweep of Minnesota, who also beat OSU and is now tied at 7-3 with PSU. Ohio State fell into a tie for fifth with Purdue and Illinois, as the Illini recovered from a slow start to post 3-1 wins against Northwestern and Michigan; the Wolverines swept Indiana but are still in danger of falling out of the bubble zone.

Northwestern is leading the second division after beating Iowa; they’ll look to get more breathing room by beating Indiana Saturday in Bloomington; both teams have challenging Wednesday matches. Michigan State’s second win pulled them clear of the two winless sides, and the Spartans can push them farther back by holding off Iowa in East Lansing on Friday. Rutgers and Iowa haven’t played each other yet.

Next up

More of the same, as Purdue hosts Northwestern Wednesday and Wisconsin on Sunday. There’s no more room for error, so the Boilers must take care of business against the Wildcats, who are both clearly in the bottom tier of the conference and also clearly not a walkover. Northwestern has yet to beat a top-tier team, but took Illinois to five sets in Champaign and Minnesota to five in Evanston. If the Boilers bring their C game again, they’ll get another L.

It’s unlikely that they’ll be able to beat a Wisconsin team that hasn’t lost since their conference opener at Maryland, but if they play like they did against Penn State, they’ll have a chance. It seems like the top four have now become a top two and next four, so it’s important for the Boilers to grab wins where they can to stay up with that group. The selection committee will likely seed them anyway (assuming they don’t slip up too many more times), but it’ll be good to avoid the Sweet 16 matchups with the top four seeds - better to need an upset win at a semi-neutral site rather than on the road.

Wednesday, 7 PM: W 3-0 vs #60 Northwestern
Sunday, noon: vs #3 Wisconsin