Redshirt senior Sherridan Atkinson found a home at Holloway
After two seasons at Long Beach State, outside hitter Sherridan Atkinson was looking for a new collegiate home. She blanketed Division I coaches with the same generic email, ending each one with a school-specific shoutout — “Fight on Trojans!” or “Go Boilers!” Dave Shondell, Purdue’s head volleyball coach, was one of the first to respond.
“I had no idea where Indiana was on the map,” Atkinson says. “I didn’t know anything about Purdue. I was a very sheltered Californian.”
She traveled to West Lafayette for a campus visit and attended a match in Holloway Gymnasium where Purdue took on Wisconsin. The Boilermakers lost that game, but after witnessing the loud fan base and the intense environment, Atkinson knew she’d found her new school.
“Watching them diving to the ground making crazy plays, jumping up and down and screaming after a big kill … it was just a crazy environment,” Atkinson says. “So different from California’s style of play. I needed to come here.”
In her three years of eligibility at Purdue, The 6-foot-5 transfer has emerged as a star player for the Boilermakers, racking up accolades this season. She’ll graduate with a degree in law in society in December. After graduation, Atkinson hopes to play professionally for a year or two before pursuing a master’s in broadcast journalism.
“Volleyball has been the biggest gateway to the life that’s ahead of me now,” Atkinson says. “This sport has been everything. And Purdue has been the biggest part of that.
“I’ve formed such good relationships since I’ve been here. The other student-athletes are like brothers and sisters to me. I feel like I’m a part of something. I was just trying to be happy when I left Long Beach. I was not expecting any of this.”
This story appeared in the Winter 2018 issue of Purdue Alumnus magazine.
