Purdue Sports Update Dec. 30

WOMEN’S HOOPS TO FACE WISCONSIN TO RE-OPEN BIG TEN PLAY

The Purdue women’s basketball team returns from the holiday break to square off with Wisconsin at Mackey Arena on Saturday night for a 6 p.m. tip. Jack Kizer and Shimmy Gray-Miller will have the call on the Big Ten Network.

GAME INFORMATION  
Purdue (7-5, 0-1) vs. Wisconsin (7-4, 0-1)
Saturday, Dec. 30
Time: 6 PM
TV/Stream: BTN
Radio: 95.3 BOB FM
Live Stats: Purduestats.com 

LAST TIME OUT
The Boilermakers closed the non-conference slate with a 79-63 win over Indiana State on Dec. 20. Abbey Ellis came one point shy of her Purdue career high with 28 points, while Mary Ashley Stevenson narrowly missed another double-double with 11 points and eight rebounds. Purdue connected on a season-high 11 3-pointers at a 50% clip and shot 47.4% overall for the game. Led by Jeanae Terry’s five helpers, Purdue dished out 20 assists on 27 made field goals.

NOTES
• Purdue leads the all-time series with a 56-22 edge over Wisconsin. Five of the last six matchups have been decided on the final possession.
• The Boilermakers enter Saturday’s game tied for the second longest active winning streak at home at eight games dating back to last season. The eight-game streak is Purdue’s longest by the Boilermakers since the 2012-13 season. Maryland holds the longest active mark in the league at 19 straight wins.
• Mary Ashley Stevenson sits atop the Big Ten freshman charts in rebounding with 5.8 per night. The New York City native also leads all Big Ten rookies with nine games of at least eight points and eight rebounds.
• Stevenson is one of 12 rookies in the nation from a major conference averaging nine points and five rebounds this season.
• Purdue has made 10 or more 3-pointers in 14 games under head coach Katie Gearlds. Purdue managed just 22 such outings in the previous 12 seasons.
• The Boilermakers’ freshman class is second in the Big Ten in scoring at 21.3 points per game. Rashunda Jones is second among the conference’s freshmen in scoring at 10.9 points per game.
• After finishing one point shy of her Purdue career high, Abbey Ellis is nearing the 1,000-point club for the second time in her career. The Australian needs 128 points to reach the 1,000-point mark as a Boilermaker, which would make her the 36th 1,000-point scorer in Purdue history and the first since 2021.
• Madison Layden’s 46.8% clip from behind the arc ranks 21st in the nation and second in the Big Ten. She is shooting an even 50% from distance (18-36) at Mackey Arena this season.
• Less than a year after a knee injury ended her high school career, Sophie Swanson has seen her impact grow for the Boilermakers. Against Indiana State, Swanson dropped a career-high 10 points. She has made a triple in each of her last four games.
• Swanson was the third different Purdue freshman to score in double figures this year, making the first time Purdue has had three rookies hit double digits since the 2016-17 season.
• Jeanae Terry has six games with at least five assists and five rebounds this year, tied for seventh in the nation. Terry and Caitlin Clark are the only players in the nation with more than 50 5-5 games since the start of the 2019-20 season (Terry – 52, Clark – 75).
• Purdue closed the non-conference stretch of its season with a 7-4 mark. The Boilermakers’ 6-0 mark at home pushed their non-conference home winning streak to a Purdue record 18 games.
• In a conference that features seven teams in the top 25 in attendance, Purdue enters Saturday’s game ranked 20th at 4,967 fans per game.

The 2023-24 Purdue women’s basketball season is presented by Purdue Global, Purdue University’s online educational solution for working adults.

GRADUATE TRANSFER CLAIRE WYVILLE COMMITS TO PURDUE

Purdue soccer coach Richard Moodie has announced that goalkeeper Claire Wyville will join the program as a graduate transfer for the 2024 season.

A native of Morriston, Ontario, Canada, Wyville comes to the Boilermakers from Memphis, where she helped the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament every season and was a member of five conference-championship teams.

Wyville will be available to play immediately in the fall with one year of eligibility remaining. She will enroll at Purdue in January and participate in the team’s spring training and exhibition season.

“We are very excited to bring in our first addition to the program,” Moodie said. “Claire comes to us from national powerhouse Memphis and a culture that produces winners. She will be a great addition to our team dynamics both on and off the pitch.”

“I chose Purdue because of the coaching staff, the conference and the location,” Wyville said. “As soon as I spoke to Richard and (associate head coach) Rob Ward, I knew that Purdue was somewhere I could excel on and off the field. I’m very excited to play for them in such a competitive conference as well. I’m also looking forward to being a little closer to home, especially for family that will make the trip to games now!”

In three years as a goalkeeper, Wyville played in 23 games with 18 starts for the Tigers. She made 41 saves for a .732 save percentage and allowed 15 goals for a 0.74 goals-against average in 1,833 minutes. Wyville amassed a 10-2-6 record with 11 solo shutouts in addition to contributing to four team clean sheets off the bench.

As a redshirt senior in 2023, Wyville played in five games with two starts. She made eight saves with one goal allowed in more than 243 minutes and kept a clean sheet in each start while playing all 90 minutes both contests. Wyville made a season-best three saves twice, against Ohio State on August 24 and vs. North Texas on September 14. The UNT win was the first of back-to-back starts for Wyville, where she did not allow a goal in 180 total minutes. She contributed to a Memphis squad that won both the American Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles and advanced to the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

2022 was a breakout campaign for Wyville, where she was recognized as the Most Outstanding Defensive Player at the AAC Championship and named to the All-Tournament Team after guiding the Tigers to an AAC tournament title. Wyville and her team did not lose a game in a their six-game postseason run, which reached the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

She played in and started 16 games as a redshirt junior in 2022, including every conference and postseason match. In more than 1,500 minutes, Wyville made 33 saves for a .702 save percentage with 14 goals allowed for a 0.83 goals-against average. She had nine shutouts and posted a record of 8-2-6. In the NCAA Tournament, Wyville made a career-high-tying four saves in back-to-back games, first in a 1-0 win at No. 10 Saint Louis on November 12 and then in a 4-0 triumph vs. Mississippi State in the second round on November 18. Wyville notched a pair of shutouts and allowed just one goal, to the top-seeded team, with five total saves in the three-game AAC Tournament en route to earning Most Outstanding Defensive Player honors.

The 2022 season for Wyville started with three consecutive shutouts, with four saves against Florida Atlantic on September 8 in her season debut and first collegiate start, two saves at Indiana on September 11 and three vs. UCF on September 15. Another three stops followed in the next game at Cincinnati for 12 saves in four games to begin the campaign. The clean sheets against FAU and at IU, with six total saves, earned Wyville AAC Weekly Honor Roll accolades.

The first game action of Wyville’s collegiate career was in 2021, where she came off the bench in two games. She did not allow a goal in nearly 70 minutes. Her career debut was on August 19 with 24 minutes on the pitch in a 4-0 win over Southeast Missouri State, followed by 45 minutes in a 8-0 victory over Arkansas Pine Bluff on August 26.

Wyville did not appear in a game in both the 2019 and 2020-21 seasons.

A national bronze medalist for Ontario in 2018, Wyville helped lead her club team, the Burlington Bayhawks, to the U17 Ontario Cup championship title in 2018. She also played ringette for Guelph and was named an MVP for Team Ontario at the 2019 Canada Winter Games. Wyville attended Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School.

Wyville graduated from Memphis in 2023 with a bachelors of science in health sciences with a concentration in exercise sport and movement science. She was recognized on the AAC All-Academic Team all four years she was eligible from 2020-23 and also earned Academic Honor Roll and Dean’s List distinction. Wyville will major in public health at Purdue. Following her playing career, she aspires to obtain her doctorate of physical therapy.

Her parents are Lisa and David Wyville, and she has one sister, Chelsea.

Wyville is the first newcomer to join the Boilermakers since Moodie was announced as the third head coach in program history on November 28. She will join incoming freshman Stephanie Lathrop on the 2024 Boilermakers.

SWIM-DIVE FLYING TO FORT LAUDERDALE FOR WINTER TRAINING

The winter training trip is back on the agenda for the Purdue swimming & diving teams, presenting a renewed opportunity to make lifelong memories together as the Boilermakers spend the second half of their semester breaks in South Florida.

Purdue is slated to spend Dec. 27 through Jan. 4 in Fort Lauderdale, returning to the Sunshine State for winter training for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign. The Boilermakers will be training at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center, which is part of the International Swimming Hall of Fame Museum complex. Additional practices will be held at Nova Southeastern University’s NSU Aquatic Center, an outdoor facility in Davie, Florida.

During winter training trips, the Boilermakers traditionally hold daily two-a-day practices. Dryland and weight training sessions between practices are also part of the daily itinerary. But there’s still plenty of beach time as well. Team accommodations are just across the A1A Coastal Byway from Fort Lauderdale Beach and the Atlantic Ocean.

The Boilermakers are making their eighth trip to Fort Lauderdale this century. Student-athletes are required to cover a large portion of the cost of their airfare. Honolulu was also a regular destination for Purdue’s winter training trips since the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center opened in August 2001. In years they do not travel, the Boilermakers hold their winter training camp at their home pool.

The winter training camp is built on a combination of volume and intensity. The biennial trips also help build camaraderie and team unity. Due to the recent training trip hiatus related in part to the coronavirus pandemic, only Purdue’s fifth-year student-athletes – Kate Beavon, Kendra Bowen and Maycey Vieta – have taken part in the experience prior. The Class of 2024 gets to finally experience a training trip after beginning their college journeys in the fall of 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

With the fall semester curriculum commitments complete, the student-athletes have an opportunity to focus strictly on training over the winter break. The annual winter training camp helps the Boilermakers gear up for the spring semester portion of their schedules, highlighted by the championship season (mid-February through March). Purdue swimming & diving once again excelled in the classroom during the recently completed fall semester.