2018 Louisville vs Purdue | Big Ten Women's Volleyball

Coach's Take: Dave Shondell Previews Purdue-Louisville

Purdue head coach Dave Shondell gives us an inside look at his program and its preparation for this weekend's matches.

Sep 6, 2018 by Kolby Paxton

Coach's Take: Dave Shondell Previews Purdue-Louisville

Dave Shondell didn’t know what to expect after the graduation of three four-year starters, including setter Ashley Evans and hitters Danielle Cuttino and Azariah Stahl, who accounted for half of his team’s offense in 2017.

The 16-year Purdue head coach figured they’d be OK. Young, but decent.

Turns out, they’re better than that.

Two weeks into the season, Purdue boasts a 5-0 record, with three of its wins coming in straight sets. After starting the season ranked 23rd in the AVCA Preseason Poll, the Boilermakers jumped to No. 20, and then kept climbing to No. 19 in this week’s poll thanks to a pair of four-set victories over Oakland and Notre Dame.

This weekend, Purdue hosts Xavier, Lipscomb, and Louisville, with the latter posing the biggest threat to the Boilermakers unblemished record, though Shondell emphasized that any of the three has the talent to compete and he’s equally focused on all three matches.

Shondell credits his team’s success to number of different sources. For one, a pair of seniors has adopted a new, team-first mentality that has changed the atmosphere in the gym for the better.

Six-foot-five, six-rotation opposite Sherridan Atkinson leads the team with 80 kills in five matches (a full third of Purdue’s offensive production), in addition to tallying eight aces, 27 digs and 11 blocks.

“Sherridan Atkinson was a key player for us a year ago but not necessarily a key teammate,” Shondell explained. “This year, she has just been tremendous in her maturity level, just her ability to grow up and do the right thing at the right time and say the right thing at the right time, work harder than she has ever worked before.”

Libero Brooke Peters, the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week has also entered her final season with a new outlook.

“Brooke was always a little bit awkward and wasn’t a great teammate, turned people off as much as she turned them on,” Shondell said. “Then this year, she’s just been totally different. She’s been fantastic. She’s doing a great job at libero and just brought herself back into the team. Sometimes that happens when kids get to be seniors, they grow up and they realize it’s their last season and they do a great job.”

The strength of Purdue’s freshman class also gives Shondell confidence. Grace Cleveland, who played middle her entire high school and club career, earned a starting spot on the outside. Shondell is so high on her potential, he offered comparisons to some of the Boilermaker greats, including Cuttino, national teamer Annie Drews, and Ariel Turner.

#PurduePoint: Purdue currently leads all B1G opponents with 36 aces on th year! Fueling that conference-leading performance is sophomore .@Juliannareising with 11 ♠️s.
.#BoilerUp ?? #OnlyTheStrong pic.twitter.com/oYadD6Q0fl
— Purdue Volleyball (@PurdueVB) September 5, 2018

“We had to move somebody [to the outside]. We were going to move Blake Mohler, and that didn’t look good early on so we thought we’d try [Grace] and she’s just natural out there,” Shondell said. “Grace is 6-3 and really plays about 6-4 cause she’s so long. She had fought an ab pull for the first three weeks [of the season], now she’s feeling really good, so she’s hitting the ball a lot harder and has got some great shots.”

And don’t forget middle Mohler, who is hitting .425 and leads the team with 23 blocks. “I think (Blake’s) under valued in our league. She’s a great middle, only about six-one-and-a-half, but she’s a rockstar athlete,” Shondell said.

Against Louisville, Purdue’s got the size advantage, particularly with 6-5 Atkinson and 6-3 Cleveland, but Louisville has certainly played the tougher preseason schedule so far, including taking a set off No. 8-ranked Florida.

In that Florida match, middle Jasmine Bennett recorded 13 kills, five block assists, and a solo block, just the latest in a series of impressive performances. Over six matches, Bennett has collected 53 kills, ranking second on the team only to OH1 Melanie McHenry, and with only eight errors, Bennett is hitting .511.

Shondell recognizes the threat posed by Bennett and McHenry, as well as Amanda Green, the OH2, and Megan Sloan on the right side, and he called Louisville’s Molly Sauer, “one of the best liberos in the country.”

In six matches, Sauer, the preseason All-ACC libero already has 82 digs. Going on her fourth season as Louisville’s starting libero, Sauer’s many accolades include ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2015 and 2017, 2015 ACC Freshman of the Year, and Second Team All-ACC in 2016 and 2017. Purdue’s hitters will have to work hard not to get frustrated when she casually digs their hardest hits.

“It’ll be a real test,” Shondell said. “We’ve had the athleticism, we’ve had great athletes, we just couldn’t be in-system enough. We weren’t functional enough as a team, and now we’re much more functional. Don't have Danielle Cuttino right now, we don’t have Annie Drews, but we have enough offense that if we’re functional we can make up for that.”

All three of Purdue’s matches at the Stacey Clark Classic will be streamed live, right here on FloVolleyball.