While the Gophers were still unbeaten in the Big Ten, coach Hugh McCutcheon was questioned last week about his attempts to calm the debate on the end of the lossless conference season. "It's the stuff of other people," he said. "I do not think they'll give you anything more if you win 20 games."

Maybe not. But with a championship in their sights, the Gophers, ranked third, continued their momentum Saturday, beating their Big Ten record to 16-0 with a scan of the number 12 Purdue. The Gophers quickly made the prone coppersmiths work in a crowded Maturi Pavilion, winning 25-10, 25-23, 25-19.

The Gophers once again used balanced scores, with 10 wins from Stephanie Samedy, nine from Adanna Rollins and Alexis Hart and eight from Regan Pittman. They defeated Purdue from .344 to .167 and defeated the Boilermakers 4-1.

The match was the last of the regular season at Maturi Pavilion, where the Gophers finished 14-0. They will close the conference program with four games on the road, in Maryland and Ohio State next weekend, and at No. 7 Penn State and Rutgers on November 23 and 24.

"The goal is to try to win the conference," said McCutcheon before the game. "That's what we're working on.

"We're just going to try to play the best possible volley ball, day in and day out. If this leads to a conference title, then wonderful. It would be a feat. It is the most difficult conference in the country. But we are not too excited about it. "

Their fans, however, are clearly caught up in the potential of leading the table. Several bill scalpers have wandered past the Maturi Pavilion, and too many mobs announced at x, xxx have kept volume to a maximum throughout the match.

Just down the street from TCF Bank Stadium, where the Gophers crushed the Purdue football team earlier in the day, the volleyball match quickly turned into a rehearsal. The Gophers were in an almost perfect rhythm throughout the first set, demolishing the Boilermakers with big runs at the beginning and end.

Purdue had a performance of -0.227 in the set, with seven kills and eight striking errors. He scored the first point before the Gophers took off on a tear of 6-0, then widened the margin to 13-5. The Gophers sealed the heat with five straight points, three of which came from Purdue's errors.

The Boilermakers, who had a string of seven late-night wins on Friday night at Wisconsin 8, kept the game tight in the second set, but continued to fight for accuracy. They made four service errors in the set, and a 6-1 run of the Gophers turned a 13-13 tie ahead of 19-14. While the Gophers led 24-20, Purdue denied the point set three times before the Gophers sealed it.

The Gophers have never lagged behind in the third set, although Purdue has pulled himself together after a deficit of 18-12 to equal 18 years. But the Gophers finished on a 7-1 run, scoring the last five points of the match.

After the game, the Gophers held a ceremony to commemorate McCutcheon's induction into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame. He did not attend the induction ceremony that took place Saturday in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where the sport was created.