She and Slay have really made progress, and that in turn has opened things up just enough for McClendon, who suddenly looks like the Deja of last year’s NCAA tournament. You add in some solid hitting from Maddie Martin at L2 and there was just too much for Purdue to defend.

I had thought, looking at the box score, that PSU won this match by stopping Turner, and that was definitely part of it, but the biggest factor was PSU getting it together offensively. Purdue really lives off their defense, but they just couldn’t get their middles to the right spot because Hancock was mixing things up so well.

Of course aces are only a small part of the story. When Micha doesn’t ace, she likely provokes an overpass leading to a PS kill, or totally disrupts the opponent’s rhythm which often leads to additional points blocking or PS kills.

John Cook said it all when he attributed Micha’s serving to having completely thrown the team out of whack. So a wicked serve sends tremors that reverberate well after the point.