Purdue transfer Eva Hudson accidentally wore red once earlier this season at the UK volleyball facility. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Purdue transfer Eva Hudson has not been part of the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry before but she did play against Louisville at Purdue.
“It did not go well, so I’m looking for some revenge,” said Hudson.
The No. 6 Wildcats take on No. 3 Louisville at 6 p.m. Thursday at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. The game will be on ESPNU with Kevin Fitzgerald handling play-by-play duties and Jennifer Hoffman the analysis.
Molly Berezowitz, a Marquette transfer who had a sister on UK’s national championship team, knows about the rivalry.
“I think there’s a few schools (who are rivals), but Louisville is definitely the top rival for us,” Berezowitz said.
Hudson learned that lesson quickly after getting on campus.
“I accidentally wore red one time in our training facilities. Didn’t know, and I got ostracized (for wearing Louisville’s color),” Hudson said.
Kentucky beat visiting SMU, ranked 10th, last weekend but Louisville went on the road and beat No. 18 Creighton 19-25, 31-29, 25-22, 25-19 last weekend behind 18 kills from outside hitter Payton Petersen. She also had nine digs and two blocks. Louisville (5-1) also got 14 kills from middle blocker Cara Cresse and 11 kills each from Chloe Chicoine and Kalyssa Blackshear. Chicoine also had a career-high 17 digs.
Louisville will be the fourth 2024 Final Four team that UK has faced this season. The Cats lost to Nebraska and Pittsburgh but beat Penn State. Kentucky (5-2) got 21 digs from Molly Tuozzo against SMU while Brooklyn DeLeye had 22 kills. Hudson had 16 kills that led to Houston focusing its defense on her the next day.
“It’s always frustrating to not get kills but I have so many teammates that are weapons that I am not too worried about it,” Hudson said after UK’s sweep over Houston Sunday. “I just focus on something else like getting digs, passing a perfect ball.”
She had 12 digs, a high number for her.
“I think my freshman year I probably digged about two balls in my whole season. So I’ve been really focusing on that, and that’s been a really big thing in practices,” Hudson said.
Both Hudson and Berezowitz like the way freshman setter Kassie O’Brien is playing. She had 49 assists, nine digs and four kills against Houston. She has 177 assists in 23 sets played this season.
“You can just tell each game she’s getting more confident. Like all our teammates, we trust her, and we have trusted her. We’re just really proud of her and how she’s played, especially this weekend,” Berezowitz said.
“I think setter is one of the hardest positions to come in and play as a freshman,” Hudson said. “She works so hard on and off the court and really tries to have chemistry with every single person and it’s really showing out there.”
