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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 13 • 33 BY TRAVIS BAUGH TBaugh@Purdue.edu U ltimately, a No. 19 ranking in the AVCA poll before NCAA se- lection wasn't enough. Purdue was left out of the 64- team NCAA Tournament field for the first time since 2009, ending a run of four consecutive Sweet 16 appearances. "It's a tough moment," Coach Dave Shondell said following the selection show Sunday. "I thought this was probably going to be the outcome when I looked at all the numbers and all the teams that were on the bubble." Ultimately, the Boilermakers failed to receive a bid due to their RPI, where Purdue finished No. 56 due to a weak strength of schedule. "The NCAA committee is 99 percent about RPI," Shondell said. " … Because they don't really have all the information about all these teams because they haven't really been tracking them, they go with something scientific, I guess, with the RPI." Look no further than Michigan State for the committee's emphasis on RPI. The Spartans finished with just 18 wins to Purdue's 22 but ranked higher than the Boilermak - ers in RPI (48) due to a tougher non-conference schedule that fea- tured seven opponents that made the NCAA Tournament as opposed to Purdue's five. Unlike the NCAA Tourna- ments for men's and women's basketball where the committee meets throughout the season, the NCAA Tournament volleyball committee consists of 10 admin- istrators who come together for a 24-hour stretch. "They use (RPI) in the other sports too, but I guarantee you the football playoff committee isn't go- ing to be going straight down the list of the RPI when they determine who's going to get into the final four there," Shondell said. Purdue lacked a signature win on its résumé with just a 4-7 mark against teams in the RPI Top 50, its highest against No. 34 Ohio State. After Shondell's squad started the sea- son 15-2 with its best Big Ten start since 1983, it faltered in the second half. Purdue went just 6-8 and ended the sea- son with three consec- utive losses, including two to Minnesota and Iowa, which finished a combined 15-29 in Big Ten play. "We had ways to play ourselves into this," Shondell said. "Shot ourselves in the foot probably three times this year. Out- side of that, I don't see anything that was a blemish. "I think we played pretty well and did the things we needed to do." Shondell and the Boilermak- ers certainly made a strong case for themselves. Purdue's 22 wins was the fourth-most in one of the top two volleyball conferences in the coun- try and the program was a stalwart in the AVCA Top 25 throughout the season. COMING UP SHORT Purdue misses NCAA tournament for first time since 2009 Purdue Senior setter Val Nichol was named to the All-Big Ten team for the second consecutive season. She's the 16th Purdue player to be selected twice in her career and just the fifth to garner mul- tiple first-team honors. Purdue Junior Annie Drews was a first-team All-Big Ten selection after averaging 3.9 kills and 4.30 points per set.