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GoldanDBlack express • volume 25, express 3 • 40 in order to be effective. "She's made a lot of progress in practice," Shondell said. "A lot of balls that she was missing even a week ago, she's starting to get her hand on now. She just needs to get better at reading the ball at the net and getting a quick first step to where the ball is being hit to. She's smart, she's fast and she can get her hands over the net as far as anybody we've ever coached." Purdue's fresh - men will be expected to play a significant role this weekend as the Boilermakers, who have yet to lose a set in six matches, compete in the Holiday Inn University Plaza Invitational. The tournament is highlighted by a match Friday night against host Western Kentucky, providing the Boilermakers an opportunity to play against a high-quality op- ponent on the road for the first time this season. "I think that will really up our game," Stahl said. "We haven't quite seen that yet. We've been playing teams that aren't necessary up to that level. That will be a huge, huge match." After the Hilltoppers defeated Purdue in Holloway Gymnasium last season, winning at Western Kentucky has been a source of mo- tivation throughout the week for the Boilermakers. "We are not letting that hap- pen this year," Dimke said. "We are so driven and hungry to beat them. Revenge is going to taste wonder- ful when we beat them." Soccer openS conference play The soccer team opens Big Ten play this weekend as it hosts Penn olympic Sport athlete-of-the-Week: ben-marvin egel M en's golf coach Rob Bradley wasn't pleased with his team's performance in the Northern Intercollegiate. The Boilermakers' fourth-place finish would have been even lower if not for a great tournament from senior Ben- Marvin Egel. "Last week was not necessarily how we wanted to get the year started," Bradley said. "Luckily, Ben held us in there from being a disaster of a weekend." Egel finished in a career-best third place with a 1-over par 217. His final round 2-under-par 70 was a career-low score and his 217 was one-stroke shy of a career-best 54- hole score. It was his first top-10 showing since March 2012, his freshman year. "It felt good," Egel said. "I knew I was playing well over the summer and I wanted to go out and keep that going. I knew to play consistent because it was a really tough golf course. The key to it was keeping the ball in play and hitting the greens. I stayed calm and cool on a tough golf course." The course at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Ill., lent itself to Egel's ability to drive the ball far, and Egel capitalized. He played the par 5s in a combined 7-under for the tournament, the third-best among all players. "He's a great ball-striker, and that golf course was def - initely a ball-striking golf course," Bradley said. "That was a really good set up for him." The Northern Intercollegiate was Egel's first competi- tion for Purdue since 2013. Bradley and Egel met and decided it was best for him to redshirt last season after he failed to qualify for Pur- due's fall tournaments. "I just wasn't hitting the ball quite as well then as I am right now," Egel said. "A lot of it was mental, too. I'm a lot more confident about my game now than when I was going through swing changes and not really know- ing where the ball was going." Purdue's top two returning golfers from last season, Enzo Perez and Austin Eoff, both underperformed over the weekend, shooting 15-over and 9-over, respectively. If Egel can replicate last weekend's performance and Perez and Eoff can get back on track, Purdue has a strong chance to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year under Bradley. "We've got a lot of talented players, including Ben-Marvin," Bradley said. "We can definitely do big things this year." — Travis Baugh Purdue Coach Dave Shondell has raved about Lydia Dimke's confidence and maturity, saying she plays like a junior, not a freshman.