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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 27, ISSUE 3 85 B efore the season, Coach Dave Shondell put up posters in the Boilermakers' locker and video rooms, showing how outsiders' perceived the team. The posters included the preseason All-Big Ten team, in which not a single Boilermaker was listed, and project- ed standings, with league coaches thinking Purdue would finish in the bottom half. Expectations were low, maybe understandably so considering Purdue had lost five se- niors from the year before, plus had two players transfer. "I think that that motivated us," outsider hitter Dan- ielle Cuttino said following a season that saw a young Boilermaker squad advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. "A lot of people doubted us, and I know we lost a lot of people (from the year before), but we still had the same type of people on our team in terms of personalities that Dave recruits, so I think no matter who is on our team that we are going to be successful under our coaching staff. It was motivating." Encouraging when looking at 2017, too, considering the Boilermakers lose only one player — senior Faye Ad- elaja, an honorable mention All-Big Ten middle blocker — from a team that finished 19-14 overall. If next season is to be a big one, and expectations will suggest it so, then 2016 was a nice step. The Boilermak- ers lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to No. 18 Missouri on the Tigers' home court Dec. 2, but only after they had upset Iowa State the night before. "I think that we played real hard and grew up a lot as both players and people, and teammates, which is very important in this sport," said Shondell, who guided Pur- due to its 11th second-round NCAA appearance in the last 13 years. "Being a great teammate and being there for your teammates is very crucial. "I look back to where we were at this time last year and it was as down as it had ever been. Even coming off a good season I knew we were losing some great players and we had granted some releases to players to go to oth- er schools and I thought that the verdict was in doubt as to where we would go at that point, but everybody pulled together. I think our staff worked really hard, our support staff became really involved with the direction we were going. "The record at 19-14 was nothing to write home about, but I was at every match and I felt very good when the sea- son was over that we had put a good product on the floor, we had gotten better and I feel very confident about what is to come with this team." The Boilermakers began hot, beating two top-10 teams in the non-conference — No. 9 Stanford in five sets and fourth-ranked Kansas in four — as part of a 10-1 start that helped Purdue reach as high as 10th in the AVCA top-25. But reality set in; the Big Ten was as loaded as ever, frequently with as many as nine ranked teams, like in the final regular-season poll in late November, when Minne- sota, Nebraska and Wisconsin represented the top three. The Cornhuskers and Gophers advanced to the Final Four, while the Badgers lost in the Elite Eight. Purdue lost six of its first seven matches in the Big Ten, before recovering to go 7-6 over the last seven weeks. The Boilermakers' 8-12 league record was good only for 10th place, but Purdue's résumé — it had a healthy RPI after the big non-conference wins and the strength of the Big Ten — was enough to earn it an NCAA bid. In Missouri, Purdue beat higher seeded Iowa State in a 3-0 sweep, getting 21 kills from Cuttino to lead the mild upset. The next day, however, the Tigers proved too much in a four-set win that ended Purdue's season. "I think we achieved as much as we did because we believe in ourselves and we really developed a sense of trust within each other, especially in the coaching staff," setter Ashley Evans said. "Honestly, since I've been here I don't think I've seen Dave as steady and as confident and as dedicated to doing something great as he was this year. Maybe the stats and the Big Ten record and where we ended up doesn't show that, but behind the scenes and what he told us in every pre-game speech, what he did after matches and the interactions with us, I knew he has huge goals for us and he believes in us, so I think it was really that trust factor (that helped)." That camaraderie was born in a rare offseason for the Boilermakers. A year ago, not only did five graduate, but they had a couple players' transfer decisions that per- sonally stung many of those who remained. But Purdue brought in its own transfer in Sherridan Atkinson, from Long Beach State, and developed plans to best take advan- tage of its smaller-than-typical roster of only 13. Cuttino moved from middle blocker to left-side hitter, as the Boilermakers tried to take better advantage of the junior's incredible athleticism. Cuttino had to overcome