Gophers volleyball falls short of No. 10 Purdue in 5-set battle

The Minnesota Gophers volleyball team was close to a second win against a top-10 opponent this week, taking 10th-ranked Purdue to five sets on Saturday night, but ultimately fell a little short (24-26, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 10-15).

Three days after beating No. 7 Wisconsin, the Gophers were back in front of another lively crowd at Maturi Pavilion and gave their fans a good show.

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The Boilermakers jumped out to an early lead but the Gophers used a 10-5 run to get in front, briefly. From there, it was back-and-forth all the way down the stretch. Ultimately, a Gophers attack error proved costly and Purdue grabbed a first set win.

Set No. 2 was tight the entire way, once again, but the Gophers mostly maintained a slim lead until Purdue jumped in front 19-18. But Minnesota didn’t back down, getting three kills from Alex Acevedo and two of Purdue’s five attack errors in the set to jump back in front, and they hung on to even the match at one set apiece.

Statistically, the third frame was really even. Both teams struggled offensively but Minnesota struggled just a bit more, hitting .000 in the stanza. The Gophers did manage to get a slim lead briefly midway through the set but after the Maroon and Gold took an 18-17 lead, Purdue finished on an 8-2 run to claim the frame.

Needing to win Set 4, the Gophers found themselves facing an early deficit as Purdue came out looking to close the match out. Then the Gophers turned it on, using a 12-4 run to take control. They led by as many as six points but the Boilermakers trimmed it all the way to one late in the stanza. However, the Gophers hung on and forced a final frame, the sixth time Minnesota has gone to five sets already this season and the second consecutive match they did it.

For the first time since Set 1, the Gophers truck first but appeared to run out of gas. After Minnesota went up 4-3, the Boilermakers finished on a 12-6 run that was fueled by a whopping five aces to avoid the upset. Overall, Purdue finished with 17 aces on the night to Minnesota’s seven.

Julia Hanson led the Gophers with 19 kills, tied for the match-high, and Lydia Grote added 17; Melani Shaffmaster had 45 assists to go with eight digs and three kills; Phoebe Awoleye had a match-high four blocks while Hanson added two; and Zeynep Palabiyik had 16 digs, just ahead of Grote’s 14.

The Gophers fall to 8-4 (1-1 in Big Ten play) and will be back in action on Friday night at UCLA.