Inexperience of Purdue volleyball shows in Sweet 16 loss to senior-heavy Oregon

MADISON, Wis. — Purdue dug an early hole from which it never recovered and was swept by second-seeded Oregon in the NCAA volleyball regional semifinals Thursday night.

The Ducks, with six seniors among their top seven players, won the opener 25-14, rallied to win the second set 25-19 and closed it out 29-27.

The third-seeded Boilermakers (23-9), who entered with a nine-match winning streak, were swept for the first time since a loss to Creighton in the second match of the season in late August.

“Oregon was just really unstoppable for the first two sets. They just put on an absolute clinic,” Purdue coach Dave Shondell said. “And I felt like we had some players that were kind of lost early on in the match. And a lot of that was because Oregon was really good and they are a veteran team.”

Sixth-ranked Oregon (29-5) will face top-seeded Wisconsin (29-3) in the regional final Saturday. The third-ranked Badgers defeated fifth-seeded Penn State 25-11, 28-30, 25-12, 25-18 in the first semifinal.

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Oregon jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the first set with the aid of two Purdue service errors and rolled to a 25-14 victory. The Ducks had a .379 hitting percentage in the opener, compared with .088, and a 5-1 advantage in blocks.

In the second set, the Ducks overcame an 18-15 deficit with a 10-1 run for a 25-19 win. The Boilermakers improved their hitting percentage to .375 in the second set, with sophomore Eva Hudson getting six kills, but Oregon hit an astonishing .633, getting seven kills from 6-3 sophomore Mimi Colyer.

Shondell thought the Boilermakers were in a good position when they got the lead in the second set.

“Absolutely. This team has done that all year,” Shondell said. “They’ve found a way to adjust to who we were playing, and get back in matches, and start to do their thing. But tonight, I just think Oregon was too good.”

In the final, the Boilermakers appeared to go up 25-24 on a kill by freshman Chloe Chicoine, but the point was overturned on a challenge as a net violation. Purdue battled through three match points before the Ducks closed it on a kill by Colyer and their 10th block of the match.

“That’s a big turn,” Shondell said. “You’re up set point and all of a sudden, they’re up set point. But give our guys credit, They battled back for about three or four more swings, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, before they finally win.”

Hudson finished with 12 kills and Chicoine added 11 as the Boilermakers finished with a .214 hitting percentage. Colyer and Morgan Lewis had 14 kills apiece for Oregon and Gabby Gonzales added 10 as the Ducks hit .364.

“I just don’t think we ever got to us being us, and that’s the really frustrating part tonight,” Hudson said.

Shondell said the difference in experience was a factor. The Boilermakers had two freshmen, a sophomore and three juniors among their top seven players.

“This is kind of the epitome of who we are,” said Shondell, sharing the post-game media session with Hudson and Chicoine. “We’ve got a freshman and a sophomore, and a lot of young players on our team that compete really, really hard. The most important thing to me right now is just understanding what a great season Purdue had this year in volleyball.”