If I were a betting man, I would like Purdue’s chances. Mentally, they have to be on a high after that comeback.
They are the Big Ten leader in blocks by a significant number, and Kansas showed how a good blocking team can hurt us. And, they have two really good servers. I believe one has the Big Ten record for most career aces. She had the 4 point run to bring them back in Set 5 today and in set 4 she had runs of 4 points and then 5 points on serve. I didn’t see the first three sets.
Lund is our best server, and she has been pretty consistent. Her 9 point run saved us in the first set. Member-Mensah, Gray and Vasquez-Gomez can get streaky good but none are consistent. Fisher has searched all year to get a consistent server coming off the bench. He seems to have settled on Vasquez-Gomez.
Plus, what is disconcerting about this team is that they have “walk-abouts” in every match, where they just lose focus. I thought that maybe in the big matches they would be able to focus for the entire match. But in the second GT match, the second Louisville match, the PSU match and today, it happened. Fisher took TOs today twice after it happened and really seemed to get on them about it. That can’t happen against Purdue.
The biggest thing we have in our favor is front court depth. I don’t think anyone goes as deep with good hitters as we do. But, we don’t have great size in the front court and that makes us more susceptible to the block.