The Ohio State women’s volleyball team surrounds junior Sydney Taylor (11) to celebrate after securing a point against Purdue. The Buckeyes lost to the Boilermakers in four sets.
Credit: Lance Haupricht | Lantern Photographer
Thousands of fans filled the Covelli Center for Ohio State’s game against Purdue Sunday.
The arena was filled not only with scarlet and gray but with bright pink to show support for breast cancer awareness.
For Ohio State, the match was bigger than volleyball; it marked this year’s “Pink Game,” honoring breast cancer survivors between the second and third sets.
Carole Morbitzer, senior defensive specialist Sarah Sue Morbitzer’s mother, was one of those honorees as she is currently undergoing her battle with breast cancer.
“We love her so much, we love her mom,” sophomore outside hitter Chelsea Thorpe said. “It’s bigger than volleyball, and we need to keep giving to each other with love and compassion, and I think this was a great afternoon to showcase that.”
Freshman libero Kaitlyn Hoffman echoed those sentiments, highlighting the impact the Morbitzers have had on the Buckeyes.
“We all really appreciate Sue and what she’s done for our team and we all tried to play for her tonight,” Hoffman said.
Head coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg said it was special seeing the support for the Morbitzer family, especially with Carole Morbitzer being recently diagnosed. Including the student section — doused in pink attire — there were 3886 fans at the Sunday match.
“It’s huge, it’s been a pretty emotional season for Sarah Sue, with her mom being diagnosed early in the preseason,” Oldenburg said. “Buckeyes take care of each other, she’s part of our family, and the parents have done a good job of supporting everybody. Being able to recognize Carole in front of Buckeye Nation was really special.”
The match itself was won by No. 15 Purdue (11-6, 5-3 Big Ten) in four sets (25-19, 17-25, 25-21, 28-26) over Ohio State (7-10, 4-4 Big Ten). The Boilermakers were fueled by a spread-out attack, as four hitters reached double-digit kills with redshirt-junior middle blocker Lourdès Myers picking up eight.
Purdue freshman opposite hitter Grace Heaney, who had 13 kills, evenly distributed them throughout the four sets. Oldenburg said Heaney was someone they needed to prepare for more in the Boilermakers’ dispersed attack.
“We needed to dial into the details a bit more. No. 14 for them, Heaney, she had a great match and we couldn’t stop her when we needed to,” Oldenburg said.
The .307 hitting rate for Purdue was what sealed the match, helping it rack up 66 kills to only 18 attack errors. Its attack featured four different hitters reaching double-digit kills, with sophomore outside hitter Eva Hudson leading the way with 19.
Despite the loss, Ohio State had one of its better offensive performances, hitting .260 as a team, improving upon the .207 clip it hit coming into the match. Thorpe credited the performance to the team’s impassioned attack.
“Just going up and being aggressive, we’ve been working on taking big rips at the ball and not worrying about who’s in front of us,” Thorpe said.
Purdue took the first set in dominant fashion, winning 25-19 off the strength of its 18 kills in the stanza. Ohio State turned things around in the second, holding onto the lead for the duration of the set.
Their attack was key in that frame, as the Buckeyes hit at a .438 clip in the 25-17 win.
Oldenburg said this style of play powered them through the set, and she hopes to see it more moving forward.
“It goes back to playing loose and free, and we did that in the second set,” Oldenburg said. “We have to be more consistent with that type of play.”
The third set was a closer affair, with 7.5 blocks for Purdue sealing its 25-21 win and forcing the Buckeyes into 11 attack errors.
Oldenburg said if the team limits these mistakes, then this will give it a higher chance of closing out tight sets.
“That’s way too many, and we’re still close in terms of the final score,” Oldenburg said. “If we can eliminate some of our errors, we can be in a better position to win sets late.”
The final set was a marathon, with each team trading points until the end, when Purdue flipped the score on a 3-0 run to earn the deciding 28-26 win, carried by a .340 hitting percentage in the frame.
“Now it’s just a matter of closing sets out when we need to,” Oldenburg said.
The Buckeyes will take on No. 1 Wisconsin for the second time this season in their next matchup Wednesday in Madison, Wisconsin, at 8 p.m.
