Volleyball Central: vs. #15 Purdue

Wednesday, October 11

Bloomington, Ind.

6:00 PM

Indiana University

#15 Purdue

10/10/2023 11:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Match Notes

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Monon Spike will be up for grabs as Indiana and Purdue clash for the first of two matches in a seven-day span on Wednesday evening at Wilkinson Hall in Bloomington (6:00 PM).

The Indiana Volleyball team (13-6, 3-3) will look to beat its in-state rivals for the first time since 2012 and recapture the traveling Monon Spike for the first time since 2007.

The Hoosiers have never beaten a ranked team at home since opening the doors to Wilkinson Hall in 2019. With a victory, IU would move into fourth place in the Big Ten. A win would also ensure IU's best 20-game start to a regular season since 2010.

Purdue comes to Bloomington having won back-to-back contests last week against Iowa and Illinois at home. IU took No. 14 Penn State to five sets on the road before going to Maryland and sweeping the Terrapins.

Connor Onion (PxP) and Emily Ehman (Color) will have the call from Wilkinson Hall on the Big Ten Network, set to be broadcasted at 6:00 PM as part of BTN's Wednesday Night Volleyball doubleheader.

This match is sold out to the general public with no tickets available at the door. Students and staff with a valid Crimson Card will have access to a limited number of tickets.

Match Info
Wednesday, October 11th, 2023 | vs. #15 Purdue | 6:00 PM ET
TV: BTN+
Watch
Live Stats

Hoosier News and Notes
Team Breakdown
• The Hoosiers sit at 13-6 (3-3) heading into the weekend's competition. On the season, IU has quality wins at Miami (FL) and Maryland. All six losses have come to teams who have won national titles before and are top-60 RPI programs.

• IU tested itself early in the season with a trip to the Long Beach Invitational. A tough weekend at The Beach, which featured three defeats and eight of nine set loss by four of fewer points, was a strong litmus test for the Hoosiers in the early going of the season.

• With a straight sweep of opponents at the Stacheville Challenge and four wins at the 305 Challenge, IU won seven-straight contests heading into Big Ten play.

• The Hoosiers' only losses in the Big Ten have come at No. 1 Wisconsin, vs. No. 2 Nebraska and at No. 14 Penn State. Those three teams are a combined 18-0 in Big Ten play and sit first through third in the conference standings.

• 12 players from last year's roster return including All-Big Ten junior setter Haworth, junior outside hitter Mady Saris, sophomore outside hitter Candela Alonso-Corcelles and senior middle blocker Savannah Kjolhede.

• IU adds Cincinnati transfer Avry Tatum (OPP) as well as talented freshmen Ramsey Gary (L), Ava Vickers (MB) and Luca Fickell (S) to the roster.

The Hoosiers
• IU is searching for its best 20-game start to a season since beginning 15-5 in the 2010 campaign.

• The Hoosiers possess three conference wins already this season including sweeps of Iowa and Maryland and a four-set victory over Illinois. A win over No. 15 Purdue would give IU its first 4-3 start to Big Ten play since 1993.

• IU closed out non-conference play with four wins in Miami at the 305 Challenge including an impressive five-set thriller over Miami (FL) on its home court. Haworth won the program's first Big Ten weekly honor of the season (Setter of the Week) after an impressive showing in South Beach (Sept. 15-16).

• A perfect weekend in Miami ensured the Hoosiers 10 wins in the non-conference for the first time since 2019 and be the fourth season since the turn of the century the program brought 10+ wins and at least one power five victory home out of the preseason.

• Aird became the first coach in program history with multiple seasons of 10+ wins in non-conference with at least one true road win over Power Five team (2019 and 2023). IU's nine victories by sweep in the non-conference were the most since winning nine during the 2010 preseason.

• To follow up a strong end to the preseason slate, IU beat Illinois 3-1 at Wilkinson Hall to kick off the Big Ten season. The Hoosiers blocked the Illini 18 times with a career-high 12 stuffs from Kjolhede. The victory was the final in a run of eight-straight wins, IU's longest winning streak since 2017.

• As a team, the Hoosiers are 1st in the Big Ten and 18th nationally with 1.94 aces per set. In total, IU has 126 aces on the season including 44 from Haworth (No. 1 in Big Ten and NCAA).

• The Hoosiers are 24th in the NCAA and 2nd in the Big Ten in total team blocks, racking up 168.0 stuffs across the first 19 matches of the season.

• IU is holding opponents to just .169 hitting offensively which ranks fourth in the Big Ten and top-50 nationally among team defenses.

• For the second time in as many games, IU has sold out Wilkinson Hall to the general public. The Hoosiers set an attendance record of 2,632 against No. 2 Nebraska (Sept. 30) and will look to break that mark again on Wednesday.

Building on Momentum
• The Hoosiers took a massive step forward in the 2022 season, playing to 16 total wins including nine in the conference. IU finished eighth in the conference last year after being picked 13th to begin the season.

• IU won nine conference games in 2022 compared to four in 2021 which marked a five-win increase, tied for the second-biggest jump in program history.

• An overall jump from 10 to 16 wins in 2022 was tied for the third-biggest improvement between seasons in program history.

Returning Numbers
• IU returns a strong core of athletes from its 2022 team including six of seven starters. Coming along with that includes a large majority of team statistics from last year that return for another go-around. The Hoosiers return 98.4% of kills and 96.8% of blocks from last year's roster.

• Four different players on IU's roster last year had 200+ kills and all four athletes return including Saris, Alonso-Corcelles, Kjolhede and junior outside hitter Morgan Geddes.

Player Watch
#10 Haworth, Camryn
• Haworth has built on an impressive 2022 season, continuing her fine form into 2023 as a junior and a team captain. She leads the conference in aces (44) and assists (637).

• Among setters in the conference, she's top-three in total aces (44), assists (637), assists per set (9.80), blocks (38.0) and kills (54). She's also fifth in digs (134).

• She became the first IU athlete to earn First Team All-Big Ten honors since 2010 (Ashley Benson) and was named to the 2023 Preseason All-Big Ten team.

• The Fishers, Ind. native became the 11th player in program history to record 2,000 assists, crossing the mark in a 33-assist effort against Jacksonville on September 16th.

• She is one of just 19 players in program history with 100 career aces and broke the program's rally-era record (in place since 2001) with aces 131 and 132 of her career against Nebraska. She is No. 4 all-time in program history and will challenge for the all-time mark of 197 in the next year.

• In her time at IU, she has three of the best five single-season aces performances in the rally-scoring era. She's got 44 aces with 14 matches to play and will challenge for the rally-era single season record of 51 set in both 2005 and 2014.

• For her career, Haworth has 2,252 assists, 579 digs and 135 aces. She is just the fourth player in program history with 2,000+ assists, 500+ digs and 100+ aces in an IU uniform.

• She matched her career high with 51 assists in a win at Miami (FL), the third time in her career she's recorded 50+ assists in a single match. She has had four or more aces on seven occasions in her time at IU including a five-ace performance over Stetson.

• The junior was named the conference's setter of the week after her performance in Miami, becoming the first IU player to win a Big Ten weekly award in consecutive seasons since Ashley Benson (2009-10). She has four double-doubles on the season, her last coming against Illinois.

• She is the only active junior in NCAA Division I volleyball with career numbers of 2,000+ assists, 500+ digs, 200+ kills, 135+ aces and 100+ blocks. She's second among active juniors in career aces with 135.

#15 Kjolhede, Savannah
• The Colleyville, Texas native was one of the Big Ten's best blockers last year and is 7th among active Big Ten players in blocks (325).

• She is tied for 10th all-time in blocks at IU and is also the 14th athlete with 300+ blocks in an IU uniform. She will move into sole possession of 10th all-time at IU in blocks with just one more this season.

• The veteran middle has played in 99 games of her college career and has started 96 of those including all 18 during her freshman campaign which was shortened by COVID-19. The only games she missed was against Radford and Lindenwood in which she was a healthy, unused sub.

• She and graduate student Kaley Rammelsberg have combined to play 220 matches, put away 1,476 kills and reject 679 shots during their collegiate careers: making them one of the most veteran duos in college volleyball. Duke's middle blocker duo (241 career matches) and Dayton's (237) are the only ones confirmed to have played more.

• Against Illinois, she blocked a career-high 12 shots, becoming just the seventh player in program history with 12-or-more blocks in a single game. She passed 300 career blocks during the match and helped lead IU to 18 total team blocks in the dominant victory.

• Through six Big Ten games, which includes matches against the nation's two-best teams, Kjolhede is hitting a whopping .421 (51-6-107) which includes 10 kills on a .643 clip against No. 2 Nebraska and 12 kills and no errors at Maryland.

• She (.292) and Rammelsberg (.316) are both among IU's all-time top five best hitters (with at least 1,000 career attempts). Only two athletes in program history have ever finished their careers with a hitting percentage of .300 or better.

#32 Gary, Ramsey
• One of the top-rated prep liberos in the 2023 class, Gary has lived up to the billing early in her college career. She has 261 digs across 19 matches including three 15+ dig efforts during IU's weekend in Miami.

• Her 261 digs are most among Big Ten freshmen and most among Power Five freshmen in the NCAA this year Among freshmen in all of the NCAA, Gary is ninth in digs.

• Gary's 24 digs in the win over Illinois were not only a career high but the most in a single game by an IU freshman since Caitlin Cox in 2008. IU's all-time freshman digs record sits at 402 which Gary will challenge for in the final two months of the season.

• She is averaging 4.27 digs per set in conference play through six matches and leads the Big Ten overall. She is third in the Big Ten overall with 261 digs and sixth with 4.02 digs per set.

BIG TEN PRESEASON POLL
Hoosiers among middle group of teams.
• IU was picked 8th in the Big Ten Preseason Volleyball poll, its highest mark since the conference begin ranking all 14 teams.

• Haworth made the Preseason All-Big Ten team, IU's first such honor since the 2010 season (Ashley Benson).

Opponent Breakdown: #15 Purdue
Series History: 34-76 (Purdue leads) | Last Meeting: 10/30/22 (L, 1-3)

• The Boilermakers are led by two outstanding left-side attackers in sophomore Eva Hudson and freshman Chloe Chicoine.
• Libero Maddie Schermerhorn is fourth in the Big Ten in digs (257) and second in digs per set (4.21).
• Raven Colvin is second in the conference in blocks (79) and paces a strong Purdue defense.