Western Mich at Purdue (in game pbp and comments)

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Purdue and Western Michigan are about 4 minutes from starting.

The IAF is loud - spill over crowd from the end of the football game

For Purdue, Miller has the block jersey on and will be starting L in the first game.

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Starting lineups

WMU
Strimel
Vogl
Mitchell S
Babcock
Sulewski
Eberling
L West

Not a big lineup not even in the middle. Purdue will have a huge advantage

Purdue's lineup
Gray
Emily Williams
Gurnell
Dildine
Lynch
Merlau
L Miller

Williams in the lineup instead of Jacques. Jacques has struggled lately, so I think Dave thinks he can give Edub an opportunity tonight

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Strimel with the first kill for WMU
Vogl with a kill on the slide with a good serve by Babcock
Williams for Purdue with the first block 1 - 2
Gray with a tough serve 2 - 2
Sulewski with a nice dump
punch shot from the floor by WMU
Gurnell with a RS attack 3 - 4
Dildine redirects an overpass
Eberling with a kill 4 - 5
Merlau with a RS attack - not a hard hit but into an empty floor
Moore for WMU hits the antenna
Sulewski with a good block on Merlau
Dildine hitting LS hits long
Miller to Gray to Lynch and it's not close 7 - 7
Shondell into the match
Lynch uses her height to reach one over
Rollshot by Dildine 9 - 7
Tough Shondell serve not returned 10 - 7
ace for Lindsey 11 - 7
Lynch with a huge block on Eberling 12 - 7

TO WMU

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Babcock gets the kill off the block
Mader takes the ball and kills it so nicely 13 - 8
Dildine with a really tough serve, winner
Babcock gets a RS attack 14 - 9
WMU called for over the net
Mader hits a little long 15 - 10
Babcock serves tough, and after a little rally its a point for WMU
Gurnell with a kill 16 - 11
Nice X play for Eberling 16 - 12
Gurnell blocked by Eberling
Ace for Strimel 16 - 14
Then a SE
WMU gets a pretty softball and put it down
Williams blocked but it goes out 18 - 15
Dildine hits long
Serve is wide 19 - 16

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Mastandrea with a tough dig but can't get saved
Mader gets a nice hit but it's just wide
This time she just goes through the block 20 - 18
Babcock runs into Lynch and Mader 21 - 18
2 hits on Lynch trying to set - usually she does a back set in that situation
service error
ace for miller 23 - 19
E Williams does a back set but Mader gets blocked
Another long serve by WMU (and Pablo fields it cleanly)
Merlau gets a good swing and the kill 25 - 20
WMU hits the antenna after a really sweet Dildine dig 26 - 20

TO WMU

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

WMU tries to run some middle plays but she isn't there
Purdue called in the net 27 - 21
An awkward tip for Merlau, but WMU tips it out
WMU tries a slide over Dildine, but she gets hands on it and Merlau gets the kill
Moore for WMU off the block
Merlau dug on a couple of rockets, and Eberling gets teh kill
So Merlau tips, and it falls

30 - 23 Purdue in game 1

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Purdue went through some bad spurts there on occasion, and most can be traced to when Gray was setting. Of course, a lot of that is also due to the fact it was Willisams and Gurnell hitting, whereas Shondell gets to set Mader and Lynch, so she has an advantage

On to game 2

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

WMU gets a couple points on their first serve, and goes ahead 3 - 2 after a Babcock service error

Purdue called for screening, maybe?
Dildine hits off Moore's block 3 - 4
Vogl with a kill
Merlau gets a weird looking ball over that no one expected
Shondell misses a dig she should have had 4 - 6
Babcock has a single block and hits wide
Moore gets a kill on a Lynch attack that got caughton the net
Sulewski called for over the net*
Ace for Miller 7 - 7
Serve is wide 7 - 8
Mader hits a tough tip but it is recovered, and then she hits wide 7 - 9
SHondell tries Williams and misconnects
And then Sulewski has a service error
Gray with an ace 9 - 10
Babcock hits form the middle wide
Williams from the middle 11 - 10
Ace for gray again 12 - 10
Strimel tips over an overdig
Vogl blocks Merlau
Babcock serves long 13 - 12
Strimel with a middle kill off the block
Dildine in the net 13 - 14
Williams with a middle kill
Moore has an open shot and puts it down
Lynch goes cross court from the middle 15 - 15
Moore gets it by Mader and Lynch 15 - 16
Lift on Shondell

TO PUrdue


*Normally, the setter gets called for backrow attack on that play but Shondell is so short that the ball is always below the net when it happens. If it were Gray, it would be called a back row attack

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Lynch with a slide out of the TO 16 - 17
Dildine serves off the top of the net for the ace
Purdue goes back to Lynch, and she puts it home
Dildine's serve hits the net but falls out 18 - 18
Lynch with a tip
Mader with a RS attack 20 - 18
Lisa Pierce with a kill off the block
Mader in the net 21 - 19
Williams blocks a tip 22 - 19
WMU gets out of system and Babcok mades a bad set to no one (well, it wasn't a bad set, but no one was there) 23 - 19

So after going down 15 - 17, Purdue has outscored WMU 8 - 2 to take a 23 - 19 lead

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Gray with a serve that freezes WMU
Pierce with a great kill down the line 25 - 19
Williams with a block on Babcock 26 - 19

TO WMU

That's an 11 - 2 run, spurred by tough serving.

Dildine having a pretty good night, I suspect, but I have gametracker on Alabama/KSU so I don;t have stats

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

After the TO WMU gets a couple of points
Strimel hit would have been out but Gray dives into it
Eberling hits long 27 - 23
VOgl with a kill on th eslide 27 - 24
Strimel service error 28 - 24
Merlau on a cross shot from the right 29 - 24
Purdue in the net on a Moore kill
Merlau kill

Purdue wins game 2 30 - 25

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Going to game 3, Dildine is moving to L. Defensively, I think Dildine was probably the best in games 1 and 2, and the others were fairly quiet.

We'll see if Miller rotates through the front row like Dildine was doing.

Eberling sails it long to start game 3
Then it is Strimel who send it long
Jacques playing and hits it long
Mader with a good kill on a tough set from Dildine 3 - 1
Lynch cranks on a block cover
Moore hits wide 5 - 1
Merlau with a rs kill after Art lets some bad lifts go
Merlau off the block

7- 1 TO WMU

A combination of Purdue using their athletic advantage, and WMU getting too cute

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Lynch blocked by Vogl but was not happy with herself 7 - 2
Lynch hits wide 7 - 3
Babcock line shot touched 7 - 4
Purdue gets a free ball and Merlau kills it 8- 4
Merlau serve error
Mader off the block for a kill 9 - 5
Pierce mi%*$#s it into the net
Pierce plays a serve that was way out but Lynch kills it hard
Strimel hits off the block 10 - 7
Merlau from the middle, dug but it goes out 11 - 7
Gray serves just long 11 - 8
babcock serves long and the radio guys catch it
WMU slide stuffed by Mader and Jacques 13 - 8
Miller serves an ace 14 - 8
And serves another 15 - 8
rotation error on WMU
Strimel with a RS kill off maders hands 16 - 9
Moore called fro two hits 17 - 9
Dildine werves and ace

TO WMU

18 - 9

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Merlau redirects a mis-set from WMU 19 - 9
Merlau can't get the block on Eberling
A ball pops up off Gray, I think, and Lynch tips it down
Purdue goes ot the bench as Meg McCormick comes in to serve
Lynch puts it down
Eberling with a kill 21 - 11
Eberling serves wide 22 - 11
Lynch with a routine middle kill
A little bit of a rally, and the ball falls on WMU
Moore with a kill off Lynch's hands 24 - 12
Lisa Pierce with a kill
(Purdue playing a 5-1 in this game, BTW)
Strimel blocked by Gray and Jacques
Sulewski dumps 26 - 13
Gray tries a dump, gets covered, but dumps again and it goes in.
WMU attack into the net 28 - 13
Krystal King in for Purdue
Merlau kill as WMU in the net
Sesselman inot the match
Babcock kill 29 - 14
Vogl kill as King can't hit the set
Babcock ace 29 - 16
Merlau tips into an open court

30 - 16

30 - 23, 30 - 25, 30 - 16

[The Bofa on the Sofa]

Just a quick summary, Merlau and Lynch led Purdue, with Lynch getting something like 12 kills hitting .647

Purdue was pretty lack-luster in the first two games, I think everyone who saw it would agree, and just went dominating in game 3. Changes in the third game included moving Dildine to Libera, Jacques into the middle instead of Williams, and going to the 5-1. I'm not sure which of these had the biggest effect. Pierce played OH in place of Gurnell in games 2 and 3.

Purdue serving was again tough, with 12 aces and only like 4 errors. WMU had 2 aces and 10 errors.


The attendance was 2027, which is the largest ever in the IAF.