Purdue Sports Update Nov. 21

Volleyball splits weekend

Despite a relentless effort by the Boilermakers, No. 19 Purdue fell 0-3 (23-25, 20-25, 11-25) to No. 6 Nebraska on Sunday afternoon.

A close first set saw a 22-20 Boilermaker lead before the Huskers came back to close it out. Meanwhile, in set two, Purdue got out to a hot start with an 11-5 advantage before Nebraska fought its way back into the game.

Purdue’s back row of Maddie Schermerhorn and Ali Hornung produced dig after dig in an effort larger than the final statistics reflected, which tallied 13 and 10 digs, respectively.

Senior Maddy Chinn led the offensive effort with seven kills. Meanwhile, sophomore Raven Colvin registered six kills and five block assists.

One week and two matches remain in the regular season. The Boilermakers will take a trip to the east coast over Thanksgiving week for a Wednesday night match at Maryland followed by a showdown at Penn State on Friday.

On senior night, the Boilermakers stormed back in the fourth set with a 6-1 run to seal a 3-1 victory over Michigan with 25-23, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22 decisions. With the win, Purdue’s record improves to 19-8, 10-7 in Big Ten play while Michigan falls to 15-12, 6-11 in Big Ten action.

Combined, the seniors and super-seniors were responsible for half of the team’s kills, and over two-thirds of the team’s digs.

Purdue and Michigan were neck-in-neck with 54 kills apiece and a 53 to 63 Michigan edge in digs, however the Boilermakers out-shined the Wolverines in two key categories: hitting % (.241 vs. .159) and blocks (13.5 vs. 11.5).

Eva Hudson led the team with 15 kills and just one error on 43 attacks. The freshman’s .326 efficiency was the ninth time she’s hit as efficiently in a match this season, and most efficient during the month of November.

Emma Ellis and Colvin each put down 11 kills, with Colvin securing a season-high-tying nine blocks in the process. Meanwhile, Colvin’s .364 attack % (11-3-22) was the most efficient among hitters.

Schermerhorn totaled 22 digs in the match, 11 of which came in the first set alone. Meanwhile, fellow senior defensive specialist, Ava Torrance had one of the best nights of her career, digging 10 balls, second-most in her career.

Grace Balensiefer came off the bench to produce 36 assists, three block assists and an errorless two kills.

WBB Topples Indiana State to Stay Perfect

A strong second half and a 51% shooting clip guided the women’s basketball team to a 77-54 win over Indiana State on Sunday afternoon at Mackey Arena. The Boilermakers improved to 4-0 for the first time since 2019-20.

Purdue posted their third straight game with a field goal percentage over 50%. Led by five 3-pointers from Cassidy Hardin, Purdue went on 9-of-19 from distance.

Hardin paced the offense with a season-high 18 points. She was joined in double figures by Lasha Petree with 17, while Madison Layden and Jayla Smith both added 10. Hardin is the fourth different Boilermaker to lead the team in scoring this season.

Jeanae Terry made her offensive impact with a dozen assists. Purdue provided a helper on 21 of 26 made field goals. Terry’s pace also led Purdue to 21 points on the fast break. The Detroit native joined April Wilson as the only Boilermaker to record six double-figure assist games since 2009.

The Boilermakers had to shrug off a slow start in the first half that saw them trailing after 10 minutes for the first time this season. After the Sycamores (2-1) went 9-for-17 in the first period, the Boilermakers responded to take a four-point lead at the break.

In the second half, it was all Purdue. The Boilermakers connected on a 60.7% of their shots over the final 20 minutes. Petree tallied 13 points, while Smith was 4-of-4 from the field for nine points.

Outscoring Indiana State 42-23 in the second half, Purdue held the guests to just 22.6% (7-31) over the final two periods. Purdue totaled 24 points in the paint and scored 12 points off 12 Sycamore giveaways during the span.

The Boilermakers opened the third quarter on a 15-3 run and limited Indiana State to just seven points in the quarter. Six different players scored in the frame for Purdue, while its defense held the guests for just 3-of-16 from the field.

Petree opened the fourth scoring the first eight points of the period, as Purdue went on a 17-3 run to extend the lead out to 32 points.

The Boilermakers will jet down to Mexico for the Cancun Challenge. Purdue will face Harvard on Thursday, Florida State on Friday and Oklahoma State on Saturday. All three games will be streamed on FloHoops and will start at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Wrestling Sweeps Boilermaker Duals

The wrestling team won all three of its matches Sunday, claiming 23 dual points in each to improve to 3-1 on the season. Victories over Cleveland State (23-13), Northern Illinois (23-11) and Chattanooga (23-16) came on the back of seven bonus point wins, including two pins.

The Boilermakers (3-1, 0-0 B1G) were anchored by sophomore Matt Ramos and redshirt-senior Kendall Coleman who both turned in perfect 3-0 days with five bonus point wins and a whopping 25 dual points between the two of them. Ramos posted three major decision wins and outscored his opponents by 27. He also picked up his first ranked win over the year by taking a 13-3 major over Northern Illinois’ No. 28 Blake West.

Coleman picked up two majors before a decision in his final match. His day was highlighted by a first period fall (0:55) of Cleveland State’s Ryan Granger. When asked about it afterwards, the veteran 157-pounder said, “I couldn’t even tell you what I did. I just saw an opportunity and took it.”

“I’m happy with how we competed today,” said head coach Tony Ersland. “We were much more aggressive today. We created more action and more scoring situations and I thought we competed much better when compared to last week. A lot of positives that we can take from today.”

In a squad full of youth at almost every weight class, Ersland once again gave dual debuts to multiple Boilermakers including sophomores Stoney Buell, Jaden Reynolds and Tristan Ruhlman and freshman Brody Baumann. Buell stepped up with a 12-4 major decision win in the 165-pound slot against Chattanooga, dominating his match with two takedowns, a reversal and two and four point near falls.

Ruhlman made the most of his opportunities in the highest pressure situation. He won his first bout in an 11-5 decision over Terrese Aarno of Northern Illinois before being thrust into a do or die match in the dual with Chattanooga. With one point separating the two teams, the heavyweight answered the call by pinning (2:52) Logan Andrew in the first period to win the match for Purdue in walk-off fashion.

“That felt great. Not even just for myself. It was obviously a big win for me, but I’m glad that I could clutch it up for the team” Ruhlman said after. “We were only leading by one point and I knew it would come down to me and honestly it was more drive than anything. There were some nerves to it but thankfully I was able to pull out the pin there.”

Multiple other Purdue wrestlers made their second dual appearance as part of the youth movement, including sophomores Hayden Copass, Hayden Filipovich, Dustin Norris and Ben Vanadia. 133-pounder Norris won both of his first two matches before having to medically withdraw from the third. No. 27 Ben Vanadia also went 2-1 on the day, losing his only match to Chattanooga’s No. 23 Matthew Waddel.

“I thought it was a really good day for our young guys,” Ersland said. “They had to fight and win in some really tough situations and they did that a couple of times today. You always tell them that everybody needs to be ready and they were. Tristan Ruhlman really embraced that role. Today he got his two opportunities and looked great. Same thing for [Brady] Baumann and Stoney [Buell]. I thought a lot of young guys did a nice job of going out and competing hard. Those are things we can build off of win or lose as the season goes along. “

At 141-pounds, fifth-year senior Parker Filius went 2-1 to get back in the win column, claiming 6-1 and 5-2 victories over Northern Illinois’ Jaivon Jones and Chattanooga’s Dayne Dalrymple. Junior Trey Kruse added a crucial win in the final match of the day, besting Grant Lundy of Chattanooga 7-2 with a six-point first period to help Purdue stay in front in that dual. Cooper Noehre earned a 15-5 major decision in his opening bout with seven takedowns against Cleveland State’s Caleb Cass.

The Boilermakers will have the week off for Thanksgiving as they prepare to travel to the vaunted Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 2.

Men Victorious in 3 More Events, Rally to Win Purdue Invite

The divers finished off their weeklong event sweep and Nick Sherman scored his second individual victory of the meet as the Purdue swimming & diving teams closed out their three-day Purdue Invitational showcase Friday at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center.

The Purdue men overcame a 12-point deficit in the team scoring entering the day to repeat as Purdue Invite champions for the first time, finishing the meet with a 100-point advantage on second-place Louisville. The Purdue men won the meet for the sixth time overall.

The Purdue women finished third behind a pair of top-25 opponents, moving up one spot from their finish last season.

Big Ten medalists Maggie Merriman and Jordan Rzepka teamed up to sweep the platform diving events, which featured both prelims and finals at the Purdue Invite for the first time this year. Rzepka’s 399-point list in the final made him a winner by 68 points as he completed the diving sweep on the men’s side of the meet.

Sherman paired a 200 breaststroke win Friday with his record-setting victory in the 200 IM on Wednesday, joining Brady Samuels, Sophie McAfee and Rzepka as Boilermakers to win multiple individual events this week. Sherman and Samuels also teamed with Idris Muhammad and Keelan Hart to make the men a winner in the 400 freestyle relay to cap the meet. The quartet posted the third-fastest time (2:50.87) in program history, missing an NCAA automatic qualifying time (A Cut) by only 0.35 hundredths.

Samuels won silver in the 100 free, joining Michael Juengel (200 back) and Coleman Modglin (200 breast) as medalists on the final night of the meet. Samuels finished top two in all in four of his events this week.

With Samuels and Modglin leading the way, Purdue had five of the top seven finishers in the 200 breast. Andrew Alders also won the B final with a career-best time, helping the Boilermakers racked up 79 points in the event, their most any event this week.

Led by B final victories from Kendra Bowen (100 free) and Madeline Greaves (200 fly), the Purdue women won six races in the finals session Friday. The Distance Crew – Kate Beavon, Reagan Mattice and Abby Jahns – produced three A final-equivalent finishes in the mile. Jahns came back and bested her prelim time in the C final of the 200 fly about 75 minutes after her mile.

Hannah Hill (100 free), Abby Harter (200 back), Lindsay Turner (200 fly) and Cecilie Wiuff (200 fly) were also A finalists Friday for the women. Mahala Erlandson moved up into ninth place in team history with a career-best time of 2:15.68 as the team’s top finisher in the 200 breast.

Dylan Burau (200 back) and Andrew Witty (200 breast) joined Alders as members of the men’s team to move up the program’s all-time lists in their event. Griffin Poulsen (4th in the mile), Skyler Younkin (5th in 200 fly), Andrew Swenson (5th in 200 back) and Aaron Frollo (5th in the mile) joined Burau (4th) and Witty (5th) with top-five finishes in their events Friday.

Swimming & diving’s post-Thanksgiving schedule of competition is always light as the holiday season begins. Selected Boilermakers will compete at USA Swimming’s U.S. Open (Nov. 30-Dec. 3 in Greensboro, N.C.), the USA Diving Winter Nationals (Dec. 11-18 in Morgantown, W. Va.) and CSCAA Open Water Nationals (Dec. 18 in Miami) over the next month. Winter training begins on campus shortly after Christmas. Purdue’s next home meet is set for Saturday, Jan. 21 vs. Indiana.