On a frosty December morning, coach Dave Shondell, his staff and 17 players stepped onto the team bus in the heart of Kentucky Bourbon Country. Hungover with disappointment following Purdue’s 3-0 loss to Louisville in the regional semifinal round of the NCAA Tournament, the Boilermakers made the 183-mile trek back to West Lafayette.

What awaited Shondell when he returned to campus was harsher than the bitter cold of a Midwestern winter. He was about to be hit with a flurry of text messages and phone calls from four members of his team, all wanting to talk about the transfer portal.

It started with redshirt sophomore Lizzie Carr, who had asked her coach for a meeting upon their return to Purdue.

“As a coach, immediately you know that this could be a situation where we’re talking about her leaving,” Shondell said.

An incredibly hard worker in the practice gym, Carr saw limited action during her three seasons in West Lafayette. Following a productive conversation with the 6-foot-6 middle blocker, Shondell understood her interest in exploring new options.

Purdue had been hit with a snowball when Carr decided to enter the transfer portal. Little did Shondell and his staff know that the volleyball program was about to be buried in an avalanche of bad news.

Two-time All-American outside hitter Eva Hudson and two-time All-Big Ten outside hitter Chloe Chicoine were preparing to pack their bags — and not just for the holiday break.

“The next day, I’m out doing stuff around the house and I missed a call from Eva,” Shondell said. “So, I called Eva back and, much to my disappointment, she’s telling me, ‘Thank you for everything that you’ve done, I’ve had a great experience, but I feel it’s in my best interest to go in the portal.’

“My head is starting to spin a little bit at this point. One of the best players you’ve ever coached, who has played virtually every single point for three years, is leaving … Then, about two hours later, I get the next call from Chloe. Very short conversation and she basically says the same thing (Eva said). To be honest with you, I was pretty much numb by then.”

The last bit of bad news came after Hudson and Chicoine told Shondell of their plans. Five-year veteran and middle blocker Lourdes Myers also let her coach know she was entering the transfer portal.

By that point, though, Shondell was shell-shocked. He didn’t have much of a rebuttal for Myers, having received four lumps of coal shortly before Santa Claus was due for his Christmas Eve voyage.

In the 48 hours after Purdue’s 27-7 season came to an end, four Boilermakers were heading out the door. It was something nobody in West Lafayette — or the college volleyball world — had anticipated.

“We really kind of got caught off guard, to be honest with you,” Shondell said. “As a coaching staff the week prior (to the NCAA Tournament), we had those discussions — is there anybody we need to be concerned about who might hit the portal? None of us felt like we had anybody who was going to leave.”

Like a bear preparing for those frigid winter temperatures, Shondell went into hibernation for a few days, not knowing what lie ahead.

Purdue rejuvenated through quick commitments

Three days before Christmas, Shondell’s smiling face popped up in a video posted to social media. Walking on a treadmill inside his home to avoid a chilly December morning, the 22-year Purdue coach had awoken from his slumber with a more positive perspective.

It took a few days, but Shondell digested what had unfolded and knew he had to get back to work. After all, there’s no time to rest for teams competing in the best volleyball conference in the country. Knowing they had some holes to fill with the departures of Carr, Hudson, Chicoine and Myers, members of the Purdue coaching staff went to work.

“When you’re trying to compete at the top of the Big Ten, the first thing you’re doing is looking in the portal and saying, ‘Who can help us do that? Who can help us do that who we can get to come to Purdue?'” Shondell said. “There were some names out there, but they’re probably looking at Texas, Nebraska, some of the bluebloods.”

Purdue was quick to land former Notre Dame and USC standout Lindsey Miller, filling a void at middle blocker. Then came commitments from outside hitters Akasha Anderson (Auburn, Michigan State) and Nataly Moravec (BYU, Iowa). The Boilers rounded out their time in the portal with pledges from middle blockers Dior Charles (Wake Forest) and Bianka Lulic (Miami).

In the matter of a few days, Shondell’s attitude completely changed.

“What was kind of the saving grace for me, what lifted me back up was that everyone I talked to from the portal was excited about Purdue,” he said. “Their impression of Purdue volleyball and the university was extremely positive. Nobody asked me, ‘Why did so-and-so leave?’ They didn’t care. They just knew there was a spot here.”

Indeed, Purdue has staked its claim as one of the top programs in the Big Ten under Shondell’s guidance. The Boilermakers have won 21 matches or more in seven of the last eight seasons, with the lone outlier being the 2020 COVID-19-shortened campaign.

In 2023 and 2024, Purdue’s Holloway Gymnasium sold out every home match. Last year, the Boilermakers made Big Ten history, posting conference attendance records of 14,876 in matches against Indiana and Wisconsin, both hosted at historic Mackey Arena.

Purdue’s status in college volleyball has risen to the top. The culture, resources and support has reached new heights, exploding in popularity and establishing a standard for success.

When the offseason resembled a revolving door of departures, though, Shondell began to question everything.

“The first thing you’re thinking is ‘How is this going to look to the outside world? What are people going to think is going on at Purdue? Why would those players (enter the transfer portal)?’ he said. “If they leave, you really have to start evaluating what happened. At the end of the day, I don’t know what you change. Maybe more conversations, more communication with them — there’s always that.

“The first time you get hit like that, you certainly think it’s your fault, you failed. After watching what has transpired across the country the last six months, you realize it’s going to happen to everybody, every year. The less you take it personal, the better off you’re going to be, but if you don’t take it personal, you’re not going to learn and get better. So, I did take it personal — not that I was angry with those players, just that we need to do better.”

Perception is everything, and while Shondell had some internal battles regarding the culture in West Lafayette, many in the transfer portal considered Purdue one of the top destinations in the sport. So much so, in fact, that only one needed to visit campus before committing.

Of the transfer players to pledge, Charles was the only one who put boots to pavement in West Lafayette. The others were quick to grab their tickets to play for one of the Big Ten’s best programs.

That helped Shondell hit the reset button heading into a new year.

“For those players to commit to us within two days certainly changed my attitude and my mentality about where we were,” he said. “It was something I needed badly, and was just really blessed and fortunate that it happened that way.”

Springing into a new volleyball season

The snow melted, grass began showing signs of green life and the 14,000 trees across the Purdue campus started to bloom. A new season in West Lafayette meant the doors to Holloway Gymnasium were about to crack open.

On the 2025 spring roster is a 50/50 mix of returning talent and new players. Eight players from the 2024 squad are back, including key contributors Kenna Wollard (outside hitter), Ryan McAleer (defensive specialist) and Taylor Anderson (setter). The other seven are newcomers — five transfers and two freshmen.

When those transfer players — Lindsey Miller, Dior Charles, Akasha Anderson, Nataly Moravec and Dior Charles — finally stepped on Purdue’s campus, their eyes were opened to a new world of college volleyball.

“It’s amazing when you get these players who come in from other schools, they can’t believe what a great situation we have at Purdue,” Shondell said. “They’re blown away by the support we have here, the facilities we have, all the people we have around — it’s just been neat to hear them say those things.”

With elite resources comes high expectations. There was no time to stand around wide-eyed and gawk at what Purdue had to offer. It was time to get to work in West Lafayette and begin the process of building a championship-caliber team.

Shondell, refreshed and rejuvenated, was ready to get back to offseason training.

“Getting those players committed certainly raised our enthusiasm, but now you’ve got to find a way to help them compete in the best conference in the country,” he said. “We knew we had certain things to improve on in this situation.”

Top priorities for the Boilermakers during the offseason included improving on first-ball contact and power hitting. After all, Purdue did lose two of the hardest-hitting players in the Big Ten with Hudson heading to Kentucky and Chicoine committing to Louisville.

Serve-receive issues proved to be costly in Purdue’s seven losses in the 2024 campaign. Correcting that was a major focus during those training sessions. And, in the Big Ten, terminating balls is a necessity. If you can’t put points away, it’s going to be awfully difficult to win matches.

Improvement on the court is only half the battle in a team sport, though. With a roster featuring a healthy mix of returners and newcomers, getting acquainted with new teammates is just as important.

“We’ve set up some things this semester to pull this team together. I mean, we have eight players who return and seven newcomers. That allowed us to set up a ‘buddy system,’ Shondell said. “Every week, they go out and do something fun with one of their new teammates — whether that be going to make candles, having dinner or go out for coffee.”

Woven into Purdue’s spring season was a schedule with five matches, which tested Purdue’s blend of on-court training and team chemistry. The Boilers hosted three matches at Holloway Gymnasium, playing Butler, Miami (Ohio) and Loyola Chicago in late March and early April. Then, Purdue traveled to Fishers (Ind.) to play Vanderbilt at a neutral-site location and closed out the spring schedule with a trip to Muncie for a match against Ball State.

Purdue posted a perfect 5-0 record, winning 17 sets and dropping only two.

It’s important not to slip into the habit of reading too much into spring exhibitions — there are too many variables to consider. But Purdue’s success in those five matches — especially with McAleer, Charles and Anderson sidelined due to injury — serves as a sign that, through the avalanche of bad news from the winter, the Boilermakers can dig themselves out and remain near the top of the Big Ten.

Shondell perseveres for Purdue, his players

December was one of the most difficult months Shondell has endured in more than 20 years at Purdue. At times, he questioned whether or not he should return as the leader of the program.

It didn’t take him long to nix the thought of leaving.

Purdue took a chance on Shondell back in February 2003, hiring him away from Muncie Central High School. He wasn’t about to bail on the school during one of the program’s toughest moments.

“I decided I needed to come back and make this thing work for two reasons: (Former athletic director) Morgan Burke hired me out of high school — I was a high school coach. Who does that? He did that for me and it changed my life, my family’s life in such a positive way. I owed it to Purdue,” Shondell said.

“I also owed it to these kids who wanted to come back and play, and these freshmen who were coming in and committed their college lives to Purdue. Those things really hit home for me.”

Yes, Shondell wants to win a lot more volleyball matches while he’s at Purdue, and he’s hopeful that this year’s team will continue to keep the Boilermakers near the top of the Big Ten standings. But what brings him the most excitement about this next chapter is the opportunity to coach a hard-working, unselfish and fun group.

“Our kids are great people. They knew that we had hit a low level and everyone was here to make it better,” he said. “I’m just really happy that, right now, we’re in a really good place.”

BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA DAYS: Dates have been announced for 2025 Big Ten Volleyball Media Days. It will be a two-day event held in Chicago at Big Ten Network headquarters. CLICK HERE