No. 10 Purdue faces first two Big Ten opponents

After an eight-game road trip, the Boilermakers are set to begin conference play.

No. 10 Purdue (9-2) will face No. 4 Penn State (10-1) at home on Wednesday at 7 p.m., then travel to Minneapolis to face No. 16 Minnesota (7-3) on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

The Boilermakers are coming off of a 1-2 weekend with losses to No. 9 Kansas and No. 6 Creighton and a win against Tulsa.

In their first losses of the season, senior middle blocker Raven Colvin led the defense with 24 blocks over the three-game stretch, including 11 against Tulsa.

Colvin and the Boilers’ defensive front will be matched up against an experienced Penn State hitting duo. Graduate outside hitters Camryn Hannah and Jess Mruzik lead the Nittany Lions with 257 kills combined this season.

Purdue has an offensive duo of their own in junior outside Eva Hudson and sophomore outside Chloe Chicoine, though. The two have combined for 295 kills this season.

They will face off against two of Penn State’s middles, junior Maggie Mendelson and former Purdue player senior Taylor Trammell who have a combined 95 blocks.

Trammell played her freshman and sophomore years at Purdue earning a spot on the Academic All-Big Ten Team and started in 41 matches.

Both teams are evenly matched as Purdue has 536 kills to Penn State’s 539.

Following the Penn State match, Purdue will travel to Minnesota for their second conference matchup to play the Golden Gophers.

Despite their three losses, Minnesota beat No. 8 Texas when they were ranked No. 1 early on in their season and is now on a six-game win streak.

Minnesota too opens their conference play Wednesday against No. 7 Wisconsin.

Junior outside Julia Hanson has 130 kills this season so far and will put up a challenge to Colvin and Purdue’s defense.

Purdue is out-hitting Minnesota this season as a team. The Boilers are hitting at 28.9%, while the Golden Gophers are hitting 23.8%.

The Boilermakers have more total team kills than Minnesota with 536 to Minnesota’s 480.

Purdue has yet to play in a fifth set, with all of their matches being decided within the first four.

On the other hand, Minnesota has gone to five sets in four of its 10 games this season.

Both matchups will be streamed on Big Ten Network.