Junior-to-be Erin Williams will transfer from Loyola Marymount to Purdue next season after her coach Tom Black left to become the new head coach at Georgia.
Williams, a 5’11” middle blocker from Cerritos, California, started 25 out of LMU’s 30 games last season. She averaged 1.63 kills/set and let the team with .73 blocks/set as a sophomore. She’s undersized as compared to the rest of Purdue’s front-line (their returning middle blockers run 6’2″, 6’2″, 6’4″), but is known as a big jumper to make up for that difference.
As a freshman, she played sparingly on an LMU team that made a run to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. As a sophomore, she became a focal point for the team and played her best in the team’s biggest games. That included 7 block assists in the team’s last game of the season against BYU, and a season-high 14 points (12 kills, 4 block assists) against UCLA early in the year.
“We are thrilled to have another wonderful student-athlete join our program,” Purdue head coach Dave Shondell said. “Erin is impressive in the classroom and on the volleyball court. Her hitting numbers against top-15 opponents last year at LMU were excellent. Erin will remind Boilermaker fans of Faye Adelaja (middle blocker, 2013-16) and will give us three explosive weapons in the middle-hitting position this fall.”
Purdue graduated 5th-year senior Faye Adelaja from last year’s team, but otherwise their block returns in-tact. The team finished 19-14 overall last season and were 10th in the Big Ten with an 8-12 conference record. They beat Iowa State and then lost to Missouri, in the NCAA tournament.
Leave a Reply