Upset-minded Boilers confident in their abilities
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 11/20/2009
sponsored by
The Boilermakers plan to honor both seniors and fans this weekend as they try to upset the No. 1 team in the country.
The Purdue volleyball team (12-15, 4-12 Big Ten) will recognize its two seniors this weekend as they face top-ranked Penn State and Ohio State.
For coach Dave Shondell, seniors Carrie Gurnell and Sam Ainsworth exhibit the kind of players he tries to build his program around.
“They’re two really good people,” Shondell said. “When I look at Sam and Carrie, they’re just happy, fun-loving and really quality people. We try to build our program with those type of people. I think they’ve done a great job of establishing a team personality at Purdue.”
All season, the Boilers have faced many challenges including several close five-set match losses. This weekend they want to prove to people that they are better than their record reveals.
“It’s a big opportunity to come out and prove to everybody that we can put up a fight,” sophomore middle blocker Tiffany Fisher said. “We could come out and beat Penn State, the No. 1 team in the country, and that would be great. They’re not as good as they were last year, and even though we’re not as good as we were last year, I think that we can come together. We could have a shot.”
Penn State comes into Friday’s match on a 92-match win streak, the second longest in any NCAA sport. However, the Boilermakers believe that they have a chance to dethrone the Nittany Lions if they use their strengths from this week’s practice.
“They’re good and they obviously have 92 wins for a reason,” Gurnell said. “They’re definitely beatable. I think this year is the most they’ve lost sets-wise. They’re definitely not as good as last year, and if we play them like we’ve been playing in practice this week, I think we have a shot.”
In addition to recognizing its seniors, the team hopes to also pay tribute to its loyal fans by playing well this weekend.
“We’ve been holding together very well despite not winning at the pace we expected to,” Shondell said. “We’ve stayed with it and have continued to improve. We owe it to our great fans to play well on this last home weekend. We have tremendous fan support, and our team feels like we need to show them how well we can play this weekend.”
The Boilermakers will face Penn State at 7 p.m. today and Ohio State at 7 p.m. Saturday. Both matches will be played in the Intercollegiate Athletic Facility, and the seniors will be recognized Saturday night.