Hoosiers beat No. 17 Purdue

The IU volleyball team gathered at center court, jumping up and down with their arms around each other, and sang the Indiana fight song.

It was the first win of the Big Ten season for the Hoosiers.

“We know how good of a team we are,” senior middle blocker Samantha Thrower said. “We were just waiting to prove it to everybody, and that’s what we did tonight.”

IU (9-12, 1-8) took down No. 17 Purdue (14-6, 5-4) in four sets Tuesday to grab its first Big Ten victory of the season.

“We fought all week, and I think we put ourselves in good opportunities,” junior defensive specialist Caitlin Hansen said. “We executed, and we stayed in the moment the entire time.”

Hansen got the start at libero and responded with a career-high 22 digs.

Since the fourth set against Illinois on Sept. 28, freshman defensive specialist Courtney Harnish had been the team’s libero instead of Hansen.

“I think (Hansen) did a really good job,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar said. “I think she really struggled in that third set, and then I think she made a decision that she was going to step up and start passing better.”

After withstanding a Purdue rally, IU was able to take the first set 25-22.

IU ran out to a 20-13 lead in the second set. The Boilermakers went on a 10-3 run to knot the score at 23-23.

Junior outside hitter Jordan Haverly recorded a kill, followed by sophomore middle blocker Morgan Leach’s block to take the set 25-23.

This was the first time in 28 Big Ten matches that IU had gone up two sets to none on a conference opponent.

Purdue stormed to a 14-7 lead in the third set and never relinquished control, picking up the 25-15 win.

IU had nine hitting errors, more in the set than kills, recording just seven in the frame. The team had to regroup to bounce back from a tough third set, Dunbar said.

After struggling in the third set, Hansen said the team told each other to stay in the moment and keep calm.

“We just kept fighting,” Hansen said. “That was our biggest thing. We are going to fight harder to them, and we did.”

The fourth set was a back-and-forth affair but ended when Thrower and senior right-side hitter Kelci Marschall combined for the match-clinching block.

Dunbar said her team has been playing at a high level for two weeks. During that span, the team took then-No. 4 Nebraska to five sets and were able to steal a set from then-No. 19 Ohio State and No. 1 Penn State.

“I had a good feeling going in, because I had a good feeling the last two weeks,” Dunbar said. “I knew that at some point it was going to come through.”

The team’s play in the fourth set was not a result of luck, but simply a decision to win, Dunbar said.

“I said, ‘Look, we have to make a decision that our will is stronger than their will,’” Dunbar said. “And we came out right away, we got an ace, a block and we scored three points really quickly, and that was a really good start for us.”