Purdue Sports Update: Oct. 16

Volleyball begins week Thursday vs. IU in Indy

Match Schedule:
Thursday, 10/16 | 7 p.m. ET | Indianapolis, Ind. | Gainbridge Fieldhouse | BTN
#12 Purdue at #22 Indiana
Monon Spike Trophy Match
Sunday, 10/19 | 1 p.m. ET | Piscataway, N.J. | Jersey Mike’s Arena | B1G+
#12 Purdue at Rutgers
PURDUE & INDIANA: OVERALL SERIES LOOK-IN

• Purdue is 41-11 all-time in home matches vs. Indiana.
• Purdue is 31-19 all-time in matches at Indiana.
• The Boilermakers have lost at home just one time under Dave Shondell and are 39-4 all-time vs. Indiana since Shondell took the reigns in 2003.

MONON SPIKE STATS

• Purdue’s all-time Monon Spike record: 37-13
• The Boilermakers have won 20 of the last 22 Spike matches.
• Under Shondell’s reign (last 22 years) Purdue and Indiana have gone to five sets just three times (2008, 2018, 2019). Purdue won all three of those matches.
• The Boilers have won the first set 77% of the time under Shondell (17 of 22).
• In 13 of the last 22 matches, the winner has been decided in straight sets.

LAST WEEK’S LOOK-BACK

• Purdue went 1-1 last week with a dominant sweep at Ohio State for its third straight win and ninth straight set win, before being taken down by #1 Nebraska 0-3.
• Kenna Wollard tied for second in the Big Ten last week after averaging 4.83 kills per set.
• Ryan McAleer averaged 4.0 digs per set.
• In Set 1 vs. Nebraska, the match was tied 22-22, and saw 19 tied scores throughout the set, the most ties in a frame all season for the Huskers. Purdue also out-dug them 19-16.
• The Boilers were third in the league last week with a .303 average hitting %.

PURDUE IN BIG TEN PLAY

• Since B1G play started, Purdue ranks #2 in total blocks (56), second to Nebraska, and sixth in total digs (271).
• The team ranks #3 in hitting % (.260) and is joined by Nebraska and Wisconsin as the only teams to hit as efficiently in league play.
• Ryan McAleer ties for second with the most digs (80) while Kenna Wollard ranks #2 in points/set and kills/set. 

MINIMAL ERRORS AT OHIO STATE

• Purdue’s six attack errors in the match marked the lowest committed since 2023 (6 vs. Minnesota, 10/26/23).
• It is the seventh time in the last 10 years Purdue has committed such few errors in a match.

EFFICIENT BOILERS

• As a team, Purdue’s averaging a .285 attack %. If the season were to end today, that would rank #2 all-time, only bested by the 2017 season’s .301 mark.

HIGHLIGHTS AT OHIO STATE

• Purdue hit .429 as a team at OSU, the first match hitting .400 or better since last November at Rutgers (.424% on 11/2/24).
• As a team, the Boilers had just two attack errors in every set, ending the night with six total – a season-low.
• Kenna Wollard hit 15 kills on a .400 clip with just three attack errors.
• Akasha Anderson posted 14 kills on a .414 clip with thee blocks (two solo).
• Bianka Lulic went errorless on the attack wtih five kills on seven swings (.714%) and three block assists.

THE MONON SPIKE ORIGINS

• The Monon Spike traveling trophy was created in 1981 and is presented to the winning team after one of the two annual matches, alternating location each season between teams. Last year was in Bloomington.
• The trophy idea was the brainchild of Purdue’s Donna Hardesty and Anne McMenamy, seniors on the 1981 team. They chose the Spike from the Monon Railroad, which originated in Indiana in the late 19th century, to be a reminder of the competition on the court as well as the tradition of the state of Indiana.
• As with its sibling trophies, the Old Oaken Bucket (football) and the Golden Boot (soccer), a “P” or “I” is added to the chain signifying the season’s winner.
• The Spike currently has 36 “P” links and 13 “I” links. 

Boilermakers Cruise to Team Title at Home Event

The men’s golf team pieced together three consistent rounds to cruise to its first tournament title of the season at the Purdue Fall Invitational.

Purdue totaled a 25-under par 839 (282-277-281) to outdistance second-place Butler by 19 shots. The 19-stroke margin is the second-largest margin in a Purdue tournament victory in school history.

It marks the fourth tournament title in just the second year for head coach Andrew Sapp and pushes the Boilermakers’ record well above .500 in head-to-head standings with one tournament remaining this fall.

Purdue’s team score of 839 is the 14^th-best, 54-hole score in Purdue history, while the 839 marks the second-lowest collegiate tournament score ever recorded at the Kampen-Cosler Course, behind an 829 by Illinois in the 2015 Boilermaker Invitational (spring).

Purdue won the team title with a loaded effort at the top of the leaderboard, as three players finished in the top three and two more finished in the top 15. It marks the first time since the 2010-11 season that five Boilermakers finished in the top 20 of a tournament.

Leading the charge was freshman Will Harvey, who posted rounds of 70-71-70=211 (-5) for a runner-up finish. Harvey used birdies on 14 and 16 to move into a share of the lead, but a bogey on the difficult 18^th dropped him one shot off the pace. He recorded his first top-5 finish as a Boilermaker.

Meanwhile, Sam Easterbrook played outstanding golf over the last 36 holes for a T-3 showing at 4-under par 212 (75-70-67). Like Harvey, Easterbrook was tied for the medalist lead heading into No. 18, but a double-bogey dropped him to 4-under par. Nonetheless, it marked Easterbrook’s 11^th career top-10 finish, now tied for the 10^th most in a career in Purdue history.

Kentaro Nanayama also had his finest performance as a Boilermaker, matching Easterbrook in a third-place tie at 4-under par 212 (71-67-74). Nanayama suffered a double-bogey on the par-5 6^th hole that dropped him two off the pace at the end of the round.

Andre Zhu (73-73-70) and Supapon Amornchaichan (68-68-80) tied for 13^th at even-par 216.

Playing as individuals, Jenson Forrester tied for eighth at 2-under par 214 (70-71-73), Yilin Sun was tied for 37^th at 7-over par 223 (80-70-73) and Leo Aaraas was tied for 54^th at 11-over par 227 (72-77-78).

Purdue will wrap up the fall season on Oct. 25 and 26 at the Steelwood Collegiate in Loxley, Alabama.

Soccer Hosts Final Two Home Matches

Purdue is set to host its final pair of home regular-season games, taking on Penn State on Thursday, Oct. 16 at 7:00 p.m. est, and Northwestern on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 6:00 p.m. est.

The Boilers are looking to battle back with these two home matches after falling in both road games last week. Purdue currently sits at 5-8-3 overall and 2-5-1 in conference, putting them 15^th in the conference standings, but still is alive in its hopes of making the conference tournament.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Penn State is 7-5-3 on the season and 3-3-2 in conference, earning them the eighth spot in the conference standings. The Nittany Lions have earned victories over conference foes Maryland, Northwestern, and Rutgers this season, and drew 2-2 with Oregon in its latest result. Penn State was ranked as high as eighth this season in the United Soccer Coaches poll but has dropped out of the polls in the last two weeks.

Northwestern is sitting 6-3-6 in its overall record and 2-2-4 in conference, holding the 10^th position in the conference standings, the cutoff point for the Big Ten tournament. The Wildcats picked up a ranked win this season over No. 4 TCU, while drawing with No. 11 Iowa, No. 23 Ohio State, and the leader of the Big Ten, Washington. Northwestern is led by the talents of Kennedy Roesch who has six goals on the season and three assists.

SERIES HISTORY
In the series history between Penn State and Purdue, the Boilers have only won one match, coming back in 2003. The series history is 1-18-3, where the Boilers and Penn State drew in their last match in 2023 while Penn State was ranked No. 4 in the country.

The Boilers lead the series against Northwestern 18-9-1, defeating the Wildcats 2-0 a year ago in Evanston. The first ever matchup between the teams was in 1999 when the Boilers came away with a 1-0 win in Evanston, Ill.

PROMOTIONAL SCHEDULE

October 16: Join us for Indiana Farm night where there will be a bandana, and koozie giveaway. There will also be a live cow and a tractor!

October 19: Join us for our Hammer Down Cancer game where there will be an auction of the Jerseys supporting the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research.

#22 Purdue to Host Annual Wrestle Offs

Wrestling will open preseason with its annual Wrestle Offs open scrimmage on Saturday.

In a friendly Team Gold vs. Team Black dual, 10 matches will take place inside Holloway Gymnasium beginning at 1 p.m. ET. Admission is free for all.

The team this year features a wealth of depth, and each match could play a significant role in determining who will get the starting nod at each weight through much of the season ahead.

Wrestling alumni Kendall Coleman and Max Lyon will serve as head coaches for the two squads. Coleman will head up Team Black as Lyon leads Team Gold.

Head coach Tony Ersland, in his 12th season at the helm of the program, leads the Boilermakers into action once again. His team is coming off its best finish at the NCAA Championships (13th) since 1992, and the squad returns all but one starter from last season’s lineup.

Matt Ramos is the lone departure, though he remains in the team’s corner as its newest full-time assistant coach.

Purdue enters the season at No. 22 in the InterMat tournament rankings. The team consists of six former NCAA qualifiers and seven nationally ranked wrestlers, the program’s most in the InterMat preseason rankings since 2021.

Joey Blaze (165 lbs) checks in at No. 3 in the country in his new, more natural weight class. He is coming off one of the most impressive NCAA tournament runs in school history as a sophomore when he became Purdue’s youngest national finalist in at least 75 years. Despite wrestling with a taped-up knee at a slimmer weight than his frame would suggest, he cruised all the way to the national title match as the No. 8 seed at 157, upsetting No. 1 Tyler Kasak (Penn State) along the way.

Familiar faces Greyson Clark (No. 18, 141 lbs), Brody Baumann (No. 21, 174 lbs), James Rowley (No. 23, 184 lbs), Ben Vanadia (No. 26, 197 lbs) and Hayden Filipovich (No. 32, 285 lbs) all carry career-high rankings into the season. Chattanooga transfer Blake Boarman (No. 19, 133 lbs) is a newcomer to watch; he spent the last four years with the Mocs, where he qualified for NCAAs last season as the SoCon runner-up.

Last year’s Wrestle Offs was an exciting, evenly-matched affair that ended in a 21-21 tie. Team Black took the win by criteria thanks to Isaac Ruble‘s pin over Jaden Reynolds.