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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 12 • 35 BY TRAVIS BAUGH TBaugh@Purdue.edu A vital weekend for NCAA Tour- nament seeding, and possi- bly even a tourney bid, awaits the volleyball team after it was swept at Minnesota Saturday in a match Coach Dave Shondell called No. 19 Purdue's worst of the year. "You don't make all those er- rors unless you're not focused," Shondell said. "That's just not on our players. That's on our staff. That's on me. Why would we en- ter a match with that much sig- nificance and make that many mis- takes? Somewhere along the line, we didn't get them ready to play and they didn't get themselves ready to play." Senior Kierra Jones said all of the recent NCAA Tournament chatter affected Purdue men- tally Saturday but the team has their proper mindset back en- tering the final weekend of the regular season. "At the beginning of the season, it was just going out there and playing one game at a time, one point at a time, and enjoying the game," Jones said. "(Monday's) practice was a really good turnaround. We're getting back to how much we love the game instead of all the politics of it." Purdue holds an RPI of 54, the eighth-highest mark in the confer - ence, while the Big Ten is only ex- pected to get six or seven teams into the Tournament, according to Shondell. Purdue's RPI has suffered as its non-conference opponents have not played as well as ex- pected, such as Morehead State (3-28), Notre Dame (6-22) and St. Louis (21-10). Additionally, Pur- due's three opponents from the Kennesaw State Owls Open are a combined 24-64, a huge detriment as half of a team's RPI comes from opponents' win percentage. Purdue's only non-conference wins against teams in the RPI Top 50 came when it defeated LSU (38) and San Diego (42) on the opening weekend of the season. "You can't anticipate that," Shondell said. "What we learned is we're better off scheduling Top 20 RPI teams and getting our lunch handed to us. Our RPI will benefit tremendously by doing that rather than playing average opponents and beating them." Big Ten play hasn't boosted Purdue's RPI as much as usual due to two matches apiece against new Big Ten members Rutgers and Maryland, who have RPIs of 184 and 151, respectively. "I think our résumé is signifi - cant, but it's still a bubble résumé," Shondell said. "Our RPI is really bad for a team that's 22-8 overall and 12-6 in the Big Ten. Usually those numbers would be good for a 20- 30 RPI." Purdue likely will assure itself a spot in the Tournament with a win against two of its final opponents in Michigan State and Wisconsin, which both rank in the RPI Top 50. "The two teams we play this week are every bit as good as Min - nesota," Shondell said. "They're both playing very well. Michigan State is in a similar situation to where we are with a win down the stretch they can make the NCAA Tournament, and then you have Wisconsin who is trying to be the outright champion of the Big Ten. Two big crowds, two great oppor- tunities that our team needs to em- brace on the road." Michigan State has improved since it suffered a 3-1 loss at Purdue in September, especially as of late with victories in three of its last four matches. "When you watch them on the tape over the past two weekends, they're going to be hard to handle," Shondell said. "Their offense is re- ally humming. We're going to have BURSTING THE BUBBLE Purdue ranks No. 54 in RPI entering final week Purdue Ashley Evans and Purdue need to finish the season strong. The Boilermakers have gone 6-6 in their last 12 matches and need at least one victory this weekend to help their NCAA chances. BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL STANDINGS Overall Conf. Wisconsin 26-2 17-1 Penn State 28-3 16-2 Illinois 22-7 14-4 Nebraska 20-7 14-4 PURDUE 22-8 12-6 Ohio State 19-11 10-8 Michigan State 16-13 9-9 Minnesota 18-11 8-10 Michigan 12-16 7-11 Northwestern 16-13 6-12 Indiana 15-15 6-12 Iowa 13-16 5-13 Maryland 9-20 2-16 Rutgers 7-24 0-18