LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Purdue Boilermakers swept the East Tennessee State Buccaneers 3-0 (25-23, 25-7, 25-18) on Friday night in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Volleyball Championships.
 
The Boilermakers advance into Saturday’s second round match and will face the winner of Kentucky/Murray State at 7 p.m. ET.
 
Purdue captured the opening set, 25-23. It was a tight set across the board with neither team leading by more than three points the entire frame. The Boilermakers closed the set on a 5-3 run to win the opening set. ETSU’s Leah Clayton led all players with six kills in the frame, the leading Purdue player on offense was Caitlyn Newton, who had four terminations.
 
Purdue started the second set on a 7-0 run behind hot service from Jena Otec. Three-straight attack errors by the Bucs forced ETSU into an early timeout trailing by half a dozen. The lead stretched to 12 and ETSU used its second timeout trailing 16-4. Dating back to the first set, it marked a streak of 21 of the last 28 points in the match won by the Boilermakers. Purdue took a 2-0 lead with a 25-7 second-set win.
 
Purdue raced out to an early 7-2 lead in the third set and didn’t look back. The Bucs cut the lead to as little as two at one point, but a 3-1 Boilermaker run was the only separation required to pull away and put away the match in three sets.
 
Follow along with the 2018 NCAA Volleyball Championships on the web at NCAAsports.com.