Eva Hudson’s 24 Kills Hand No. 3 Kentucky Top-10 Win at TAMU

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Senior outside hitter Eva Hudson had 24 kills on 59 swings as the No. 3 Kentucky Volleyball team eked out a 3-1 win over No. 9 Texas A&M 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-15, 27-25) inside Reed Arena on Wednesday night.

Hudson was dynamite for Kentucky, as she hit .373 on the evening with 11 digs for her third double-double on the season. Kentucky now with the win Wednesday picks up its fourth top-10 win of the year, and a new school-record third top-10 true road win with the 3-1 victory at Texas A&M.

Brooklyn DeLeye had 19 kills hitting .213 on the night with a block and three digs, while the third UK scorer to reach double-figures scoring was Lizzie Carr who had 11 kills and only one error in the match as she hit a robust .588 on the night with an assist and three blocks with two of them solo. Molly Tuozzo led the Wildcats with 19 digs on the night as UK held Texas A&M to .205 hitting for the match and six blocks to outblock the Aggies, 6-5, one of the best blocking teams in the nation.

Kassie O’Brien led the Kentucky offense to the tune of .293 hitting with a new career-high 48 assists Wednesday night in Reed Arena. The freshman who was coming home to Katy, Texas had three kills and no errors offensively with 13 digs for her fourth double-double.

Kentucky will close out its three-match Southeastern Conference road trip on Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a league match with LSU at 1 p.m. ET. The match will air live on ESPN and the ESPN app with Sam Gore and Mary Wise on the call from the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

UK is now 11-2 on the year and a perfect 4-0 in SEC play.

Set 1

Texas A&M took a 1-0 lead in the match thanks to a 25-21 opening-set victory. The Aggies raced out to a 7-3 lead and never trailed for the remainder of the set as TAMU hit .300 for the frame with 17 kills and only five errors. Jordyn Dailey stuffed the only block of the set as Kentucky tried to get things even at 7-5, but a 3-1 TAMU run grew the lead back to four, where it stayed for a majority of the set until a 4-0 run for Texas A&M out of a timeout made things 23-17 Aggies, only two points away from set point. TAMU arrived at set point with the score 24-17 and Kentucky went on a 3-0 run, including a kill from Eva Hudson on the longest rally of the match, her second of the set as TAMU called timeout leading 24-20. UK got a point out of the timeout to make it 24-21 as the Wildcats closed the gap to three for the first time since it was 20-17 but a sideout by the Aggies ended the set, 25-21. Brooklyn DeLeye led the Wildcats with five kills on 13 swings with Hudson ticketing two kills and three others with one for UK, who hit .250 for the set.

Set 2

Kentucky took the second set with a 25-22 victory in the second frame to even the match. The Wildcats took an early 12-9 lead thanks to a huge stuff block by Brooke Bultema and Lizzie Carr as the three-point lead pushed the Aggies into their first timeout of the set with UK leading for the first time all evening. The lead went to five on Eva Hudson’s fourth kill of the match on an offspeed termination from the right side as UK went up 15-10. The teams traded sideouts until Kentucky went on a 3-0 run to make things 19-13 and TAMU burned its final timeout of the set with UK up six. Kentucky arrived at set point at 24-18 and with a six-point cushion closed out the frame thanks to a service error by the Aggies after a 4-0 run. UK hit .356 in the set while holding TAMU to .268 with the Wildcats registering three blocks in the set and were not blocked a single time themselves. Eva Hudson overtook DeLeye as UK’s leader in kills with nine for the match and DeLeye one back at eight with Lizzie Carr recording six through the opening two frames.

Set 3

Kentucky put together a clinical and convincing performance in the third set to take a two sets to one lead in the match thanks to a 25-15 third set victory. The Wildcats hit .290 in the frame, but it was the defense that stole the show as UK held the Aggies to .067 hitting for the frame with nine kills and seven attack errors as UK cruised to the 2-1 lead. Texas A&M fell behind 12-6 in the set and burned its first timeout as Eva Hudson was in the midst of a 5-0 service run, the longest run of the match for Kentucky to that point. Hudson cracked her 12th kill of the match from the left side off an extended rally as she took out the trash with a lethal kill over Emily Hellmuth to push the lead to 16-9 and the Aggies took their final timeout with the Kentucky lead at seven. UK ballooned its lead as the set came to a close with Brooklyn DeLeye hammering an in-system swing to the floor to make things 21-13 and a service error for TAMU ended the set for the second consecutive set as Kentucky took the third, 25-15.

Set 4

Set four was by far the closest of the night, with Kentucky closing the night in dramatic fashion thanks to a 27-25 final-set victory. The Wildcats trailed by as many as three points late in the set, even as late as 16-13 before rallying to tie the score at 19-19 to erase the deficit and square the set back up. Texas A&M won two challenges to get the lead at 21-20 and 22-20 but it was Eva Hudson to the rescue, as she got back-to-back kills to bring the score to 24-24 and TAMU called its final timeout. Texas A&M wasted two set point opportunities before Kentucky won a net fault challenge at 25-25 to get to 26-25. On the point, it was a serve by Kassie O’Brien that got the Aggies out of system and a net fault ended the match as Kentucky won, 27-25.

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