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GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 28 • 4 nament match against Central Arkansas to set up a match with unbeaten Missouri. On the Tigers' home floor. No matter. Val Nichols' triple- double helped spark Purdue to an upset victory in four sets. Another victory against ranked Illinois on the Illini's home floor pushed Purdue to the Elite 8 for the second time in four seasons. The season ultimately ended at the hands of league foe Wis- consin — the Badgers went on to lose the national championship to Penn State — but it was still a solid season for Shondell's group. "I was thrilled with the season we had," Shondell said. "It's just such a tough, tough league and by the time you get through the Big Ten, you're not sure if you're going to make the tournament or not. It's a grind. Then you always look forward to getting into the tournament because you know at least for a weekend you're not going to play anybody from your league. They can't put a Big Ten team in that first or sec- ond round. Instead, we go to Missouri and beat the third-ranked team in the country." Nichol, a junior, was the team's only all-Big Ten selection and also was named an AVCA third-team All-American. But spark plug senior Carly Cramer was a cru- cial leader, and senior Catherine Rebarchak led the team in kills. "I just felt like our kids really persevered," Shondell said. "The se- nior class, four of which were fifth-year seniors, they just really stood tall and displayed great leadership and helped us get where we needed to go. It wasn't most talented team we've ever had, but it certainly was one that had great focus and came togeth- er. I thought we used all of our tal- ents really well to get to where we needed to go." — Stacy Clardie No. 4: Boilers surge Post-Houser The moment KK Houser hit the floor at the Breslin Center, clutching at her left knee, the Boil- ermakers' season hit a cross roads. In early February, Purdue was within minutes of its second con- secutive loss, both to Big Ten con- tenders Penn State and Michigan State, knocking it out of the race for a league crown. But even more so, Houser's injury — immediate- ly, it clearly appeared to be a torn ACL and was later confirmed to be so — put a cloud on the rest of the Boilermakers' season. Without their leading scorer, emotional leader and arguably best defender, could they win a couple of their remaining six reg- ular-season games? Maybe half? Think again. The Boilermakers rallied around the fallen senior, reeling off victory after victory after vic- Tom Campbell With the Notre Dame series taking a break after 2014, the Boilermakers could be hard-pressed to duplicate this kind of atmosphere with primetime major-television audiences. 3