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BY TRAVIS BAUGH TBaugh@Purdue.edu W ith the home portion of its schedule complete, No. 16 Purdue hits the road for its final three contests looking to im- prove its seeding for the NCAA Tournament. The Boilermakers made sure to take full advantage of their final game of the year in Holloway Gym- nasium with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-17 sweep over Rutgers Wednesday to improve to 22-7 overall and 12-5 in conference play. Purdue was in control from the first set and dominated sta- tistically for the duration of the match. It outhit Rutgers .369-.137, finished with 47 assists to the Scarlet Knights' 28 and outdug Rutgers 46-36. Senior Val Nichol saved one of her best home performances for last by posting her fourth ca- reer triple-double, a Purdue re- cord, with 13 kills, 22 assists and 11 digs while hitting .522. "I thought was kind of a mi- crocosm of her whole career here," Coach Dave Shondell said. "She set, she served, she dug, she hit, she blocked. Just did a lot of things well which is what she has done." Fellow senior KiKi Jones was solid for the Boilermakers as well, contributing six kills at a .333 clip. "KiKi with her quiet demeanor went out and hit for a high per- centage and led the team," Shon- dell said. "It was fun to see those guys go out on a good note in their last match to be played here in Holloway Gym." The win also gave Kaisley Fisher, the third member of Pur- due's 2011 recruiting class, a final chance to play alongside Nichol and Jones. The redshirt junior has had an injury-plagued career with a shoulder issue her freshman year and a torn ACL that sidelined her for all of the 2013 season. "Kaisley has earned that op- portunity. It wasn't because we were trying to toss somebody a bone and let her play with the two teammates she came with," Shon- dell said. After Wednesday night's vic- tory, Purdue trails Nebraska for fourth place by a match and holds a two-match lead over Ohio State for fifth place. Purdue has played each of its final three regular-season oppo- nents with mixed results. Shondell's squad travels to Minnesota Saturday just three weeks after it swept the Gophers in West Lafayette. Michigan State, a team Purdue defeated 3-1 dur- ing the conference's opening weekend, hosts Purdue Wednes- day. SENIORS SHINE IN FINAL MATCH IN HOLLOWAY Nichol records fourth career triple-double Purdue Senior Val Nichol had one of her four career triple-doubles in Purdue's final home match on Wednesday. GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 11 • 46