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v o l l e y b a l l w r a p u p Sweet 16 Appearance Caps Volleyball Season Boilers upend Florida State before falling to Minnesota BY BRANDAN ALFORD BrandanAlford@Gmail.com A s the Boilers headed home from a loss to Minnesota in mid-October, they had dropped five of their past six matches and had only a .500 record in Big Ten play. The Boilers hadn't won more than one set in a match for nearly a month and they were a team searching for answers. A season that had begun with high hopes and higher expectations was suddenly in doubt. Purdue was at a crossroads, and it responded accordingly, reeling off five consecutive victories and winning seven of its final 10 matches to close the regular season. "We came together as a team when we needed to," Volleyball results (23-11) Date Opponent / Event Mortar Board Premier Aug. 24 vs. Northern Iowa Aug. 25 vs. George Washington vs. Pittsburgh Tiger Classic Aug. 31 vs. Washington Aug. 31 at Rice Sept. 1 vs. LSU Big Ten/Big East Challenge Sept. 7 vs. Louisville Sept. 8 at Cincinnati Active Ankle Challenge Sept. 14 vs. Jacksonville State vs. UAB Sept. 15 vs. Bowling Green Sept. 21 at Michigan State * Sept. 22 at Michigan * Sept. 28 vs. Northwestern * Sept. 29 vs. Illinois * TV Oct. 5 vs. Nebraska * TV Oct. 6 vs. Iowa * Oct. 12 at Penn State * TV Oct. 13 at Ohio State * Oct. 16 at Indiana * TV Oct. 20 at Minnesota * Oct. 26 vs. Michigan * TV Oct. 27 vs. Michigan State * Oct. 31 at Illinois * TV Nov. 3 at Northwestern * Nov. 8 at Iowa * Nov. 10 at Nebraska * Nov. 16 vs. Ohio State * Nov. 17 vs. Penn State * Nov. 21 vs. Indiana * Nov. 23 vs. Wisconsin * NCAA Tournament Nov. 30 vs. Colorado State Dec. 1 at Florida State Dec. 7 vs. Minnesota Location Result West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. W, 3-0 W, 3-0 W, 3-0 Houston, Texas Houston, Texas Houston, Texas L, 0-3 W, 3-2 W, 3-0 Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati, Ohio L, 0-3 W, 3-1 West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. East Lansing, Mich. Ann Arbor, Mich. West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. University Park, Pa. Columbus, Ohio Bloomington, Ind. Minneapolis, Minn. West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. Champaign, Ill. Evanston, Ill. Iowa City, Iowa Lincoln, Neb. West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. West Lafayette, Ind. W, 3-1 W, 3-0 W, 3-0 W, 3-2 W, 3-2 W, 3-1 W, 3-2 L, 0-3 L, 0-3 L, 0-3 W, 3-1 L, 1-3 L, 1-3 W, 3-0 W, 3-2 W, 3-2 W, 3-0 W, 3-0 L, 2-3 L, 0-3 L, 1-3 W, 3-0 W, 3-1 Tallahassee, Fla. Tallahassee, Fla. West Lafayette, Ind. W, 3-0 W, 3-2 L, 1-3 60 • Gold & Black IllustrateD • volume 23, issue 3 Tom Campbell The Boilermaker volleyball program has enjoyed great student support, as evidenced in the NCAA Regionals played in Mackey Arena the first full weekend in December. said senior Ariel Turner, whose team rallied to make the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, before losing to Minnesota in Mackey Arena. "We had to stay focused and work together." A refocused, rededicated Purdue team started putting in place the pieces necessary to turn its season around. "Our problem up to that point had been that we would talk about what we needed to do, but we wouldn't produce results," junior Carly Cramer said. "We needed to actually believe and had to start executing. "We realized that we had to come in every single day ready to work and we had to take every match one at a time." Coming off that ten-game stretch to end the regular season, the Boilers received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. As fate would have it, Purdue was placed in the Tallahassee sub-regional, setting up a possible second-round matchup with ninth-seeded Florida State. A year ago, Purdue had its sights set on a Final Four appearance; however, those dreams were derailed by an inspired Seminole squad, which eliminated the Boilers in the Sweet 16. This year it was the Boilers who got the chance to play spoilers, upending Florida State on its home court in the tourney's second round, and returning home to host the four-team regional final at Mackey Arena. "That was a huge win for us," Turner said. "That was a team win; we all played well. It was great to be able to take that one from them on their home court after last year." Joining Purdue in West Lafayette was No. 8 Minnesota, No. 1 Penn State, and No. 16 Kentucky. Unfortunately for the Boilers, their second matchup with the Golden Gophers ended the same way as their meeting in Minneapolis in October, with Minnesota claiming a 3-1 win. Penn State would go on to claim the regional title before falling in the Final Four. Purdue finished the year with a 23-11 overall record, including 12-8 in the Big Ten. It was a disappointing end to a season that had seen great improvements made in the season's final month, once again falling short of a Final Four berth. "The way we were playing at the end of the season was a lot of fun," Turner said. "We had great team chemistry and really fed off of one another. It's really too bad we couldn't keep it going, but I'm extremely GBIprint.com GoldandBlack.com