(RV) Purdue Looks to Upend #3 Minnesota in West Lafayette; Nov. 10 Preview

Every day at VolleyMob we will preview several of the most notable and interesting matches in NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball. We will offer an inside look at some of those top matchups each day as we carry along through the 2017 season.

*Note: The VolleyMob Top 25 Power Rankings are utilized for a team’s ranking

*The entire week’s schedule can be seen here.

THE BIG MATCH:

#3 Minnesota (23-2, 12-2) at (RV) Purdue (18-7, 8-6) – 5:30 pm ET

How to follow: BTN Plus/Game Tracker

Minnesota could be put on upset alert as they travel to West Lafayette, Indiana for a road test at a Purdue team ‘on the cusp’ in the latest VolleyMob Top 25 Power Rankings.

The Golden Gophers started the year 1-2 in Big Ten action, but they’ve since rolled to 11 straight victories. Over their last three, they haven’t even lost a set. This starts their first of four on the road as well, as they will need to navigate it tightly to stay right on the tail of Penn State and Nebraska for the Big Ten lead. Minnesota could not be stopped offensively in the first go around, a Golden Gophers sweep, as they hit .298 behind Samantha Seliger-Swenson (36 assists, 15 digs, two kills, .400).

The team hosting this one, Purdue, has gone 8-3 at home on the season. They have a difficult home environment which they will look to fuel them to not only a big victory but one that would likely vault them back into the top 25 power rankings. In the first meeting with Minnesota, the Purdue offense scored some big points as setter Ashley Evans racked up 41 assists in just three sets, but 18 attack errors, six serve errors and four reception errors gave the Golden Gophers a sweep – although the second and third sets were very tight.

OTHER NOTABLE MATCHES:

(RV) Illinois (18-7, 9-5) at #11 Michigan State (17-6, 10-4) – 6:30 pm ET

How to follow: BTN Plus/Illinois Radio/Game Tracker

Illinois has a chance to come on the road and down Michigan State to move into a tie in the Big Ten standings. Beyond that, a win would likely vault them into the VolleyMob Top 25 rankings while Michigan State looks to score another solid win as they try to secure their first/second round hosting ability.

#16 Utah (18-8, 9-6) at #22 UCLA (16-8, 9-6) – 11 pm ET

How to follow: Pac-12 Networks/UCLA Radio/Live Stats

This is Utah’s second match of a Los Angeles swing, and they will hope it goes better than their first after they fell at the hands of USC. On the flip side, UCLA is coming off of a ranked win as they swept Colorado and are now looking to finish the Pac-12 regular season riding high as they look for another big win to boost their first/second round hosting chances.