The Michigan women’s volleyball team opened up this season with a convincing upset of then-No. 3 Nebraska and climbed all the way to No. 6 in the country, the highest ranking in program history. But it had little time to enjoy its nonconference success.

This weekend marked the beginning of a grueling two-month stretch of Big Ten play, possibly the most well-balanced conference in the nation. In order to prove themselves as conference championship contenders, Michigan must perform against its proven Big Ten rivals. The Wolverines’ first test came at Purdue yesterday afternoon.

Senior outside hitter Juliana Paz had 18 kills, as Michigan won in West Lafayette in its first five-set match of the season (17-25, 25-23, 15-25, 25-20, 15-13).

Yesterday marked Paz’s fourth straight double-digit kill performance, and she was joined this time by sophomore right side hitter Alex Hunt (15 kills) and senior outside hitter Veronica Rood (12). Junior setter Lexi Zimmerman also stepped up with a season-high 49 assists. The eighth-ranked Wolverines (2-0 Big Ten, 14-1) stopped a Boilermaker team that had upset No. 16 Michigan State just two days prior.

“There were nerves, all night,” Michigan coach Mark Rosen said. “It was a tough match. There was a big crowd. And we didn’t play particularly smooth. But in the end, our players were aggressive, and they were very composed in the fifth set.”

The fifth set started with sloppy play as Purdue jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Michigan errors. Then, Paz regained the momentum with two straight kills. The rest of the set played out frantically back and forth, until Paz stepped up with the game-winning kill to clinch the match.

The win at Purdue was a crucial follow-up to Friday night’s win at Indiana. Though Michigan has finished with 21-plus win seasons for each of the past three years, the team has only posted a .500 winning percentage against Big Ten opponents during that span. The Wolverines had added motivation heading into the weekend after being swept by unranked Oregon State last weekend – a rare non-conference loss.

“You have to be ready for every individual match, not just the Big Ten ones,” Rosen said. “Any team has the ability to knock off anyone else.”

The team momentarily suspended any doubt about how it would perform in conference play as it made quick work of the Hoosiers on Friday night in a straight-set victory. Sophomore middle blocker Courtney Fletcher had a leading role as she posted a career-high 11 kills.

The Wolverines hope that these big wins in Big Ten play carry over to next weekend when they come home to face Northwestern on Friday night.