Coach Shondell stays perfect in first round matchups at Purdue.
Purdue volleyball had a good enough regular season that they were rewarded with playing the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at home in Holloway. They were also rewarded with the 4 seed. Last night they got their first opponent, Western Michigan. They took them down in a three set sweep (25-21, 25-23, 25-22). You can see just based on the scores that Western Michigan put up a hell of a fight but with Eva Hudson and Chloe Chicoine on the squad it was never going to be easy for Western Michigan. The two Purdue stars combined for 33 kills on the night. Chicoine was responsible for 12 of those kills and also added 19 digs for the Volleyball double-double for those that don’t know.
There was also history made in this one as Raven Colvin became Purdue’s all time leader in block assists. She notched six in this game for a career total of 552. Sophomore Taylor Anderson led the team in assists with 45 over the three sets. Purdue had contributions from all over the court on this one, and they needed them as the pesky Broncos just would not go away in any set. That’s to be expected in the NCAA Tournament.
This win advanced Purdue to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and maintained Dave Shondell’s perfect record in first round NCAA matchups. Quite incredible when you remember that he’s made the tournament 19 times. Not one slip up there. A masterful job.
There is no time for rest for the Boilermakers though as they have their second matchup tonight at 6:00 PM. Everyone thought that Purdue would be facing the 5th seeded Cougars of BYU, but they will instead face Loyola-Chicago who upset BYU in a three set match. That could be good news for Purdue because while you never want to downplay any opponent, see Purdue men’s basketball last night against Penn State or countless other examples, you’d much rather play the unseeded opponent than the seeded one.
The match against Loyola-Chicago is tonight at 6:00 PM exclusively on ESPN+. One note about ESPN+, it’s now available on Disney+ but it still requires either an ESPN+ subscription or a Disney+ bundle subscription. The big advantage here is that the Disney+ app is much better than finding content on the ESPN app that is, quite frankly, terrible.