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volleyball opens NCAA with central arkansas BY BRANDAN ALFORD BrandanAlford@Gmail.com L ate Sunday night, Dave Shondell's volleyball team watched the NCAA Tournament Selection Show as players and coaches discovered their postseason fate. After closing the season with four consecutive wins, the 19thranked Boilers will be traveling to Columbia, Mo., for first- and second-round action. Purdue (20-11) will face Central Arkansas (27-3) on Friday with the winner taking on the winner between No. 4 Missouri (34-0) and IUPUI (19-13). "Finally seeing that we were in the Tournament and who we were going to play, that was really exciting," junior Val Nichol said. "Now we know what we have to prepare for; we've looked at a little game tape and we know the game plan we need to use." While Purdue's Big Ten résumé put the Boilermakers in a good position for a tournament berth, it wasn't until the final week — when Purdue Carly Cramer notched a pair of important victories over Indiana and No. 19 Michigan State — that Shondell and Co. felt truly secure they would be headed to the postseason. "We felt like we had a great final two weekends," Shondell said. "We were able to sweep an Indiana team that is much more talented than their record shows. We played at a really high level that night. Then, we came back on senior night and got ourselves into a funk, but were able to get things turned around. It was a great way to end the season." Tom Campbell Val Nichol and the Boilermakers are feeling confident on the eve of the NCAA Tournament after winning their last four games of the regular season. But they'll face a challenging slate in Missouri. After a grueling Big Ten season, which included a four-match losing streak, Purdue now turns its attention to a Central Arkansas team that hasn't lost since the middle of September. The Bears have won their last 22 matches, including a perfect 18-0 record in the Southland Conference. Central Arkansas added three more wins in the conference tournament to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. The battle-tested Boilermakers expect to rely on a schedule that saw its fair share of ups and downs. "We have a lot of confidence coming out of the Big Ten," junior Carly Cramer said. "We have played such a demanding schedule this season that we feel like anything is attainable for us. We've played in a lot of five-set matches; GoldanDBlack express • volume 24, express 13 • 35