#10 Purdue Set to Host Ohio State, #8 Wisconsin

Wednesday, October 23
7 p.m. ET | Ohio State at #10 Purdue  | BTN | WSHY 104.3 FM
National Croc Day - Gibit Giveaway
 
Saturday, October 26
3:30 p.m. ET | #8 Wisconsin at #10 Purdue  | NBC | WSHY 104.3 FM
Goldout Match | Mackey Match 
 

West Lafayette, Ind. – Entering the week with six wins in the last seven matches, the No. 10 Purdue Boilermakers (15-4, 6-2 Big Ten) are set to host the Ohio State Buckeyes (8-10, 1-7 Big Ten) in a midweek matchup before taking on the No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday in Mackey Arena.

Purdue and Ohio State will clash Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network. Meanwhile, Purdue's sixth top-10 battle will air on NBC on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET inside a sold-out Mackey Arena. It will be the second collegiate volleyball match in history to be nationally televised on NBC and will tie the record Purdue set last weekend with the largest attendance at a Big Ten regular-season match.

PURDUE VS. OHIO STATE: HISTORY AT A GLANCE

• Purdue is 3-2 over the last five meetings vs. Ohio State.
• The Boilermakers and Buckeyes are nearly even in home/away series, with Purdue owning the 24-17 record in West Lafayette and Ohio State holding the 17-26 edge in Columbus.
• Neither team has swept the other since 2018, seeing eight consecutive four or five setters.

PURDUE VS. WISCONSIN: HISTORY AT A GLANCE

• Purdue is 21-20 all-time in home matches vs. Wisconsin.
• Over the last five matches, Purdue holds the winning record with three wins, two of which have come in West Lafayette.
• The Boilermakers are coming off a thrilling five-set win vs. Wisconsin in Holloway Gymnasium last season, which was also a Gold Out match.

PURDUE: QUICK HITS

• The team is #12 in the nation in blocks per set (2.80), #14 in kills per set (13.86) and #16 in hitting % (.281).
• Eva Hudson and Chloe Chicoine were named to the AVCA Player of the Year Watch List in September.
• Three Boilers are averaging 2.5 kills per set or higher: Hudson (4.31), Chicoine (3.29) and Colvin (2.61).
• Purdue is 49-21 in sets won this season.
• The Boilers are averaging .281 hitting %. To put in perspective, it would rank as #3 in Purdue single-season history if things were to end today. It would be just the second time this century the Boilers have hit so efficiently.
• Raven Colvin is #4 in the nation in blocks per set (including #1 in the Big Ten) with 1.63 per set, which would tie the program record if the season were to end today, while her .404 hitting % would rank #2 in Purdue single-season history. To put in perspective, the current season-record is .409% (First Team All-American Stephanie Lynch in 2008) and 1.63 blocks per set (Taylor Trammell, 2020).
• Freshman DS Ryan McAleer has recorded a perfect reception % in 12 matches. Moreover, she recorded six aces at then-#16 Minnesota, tying as the most-ever by a Purdue freshman. She set a new career-high 15 digs vs. Indiana (10/19).
• Eva Hudson has stepped up in the biggest matches of the season. She set a season-high 26 kills on a .349% at #2 Nebraska and nearly had an errorless match at now-#9 Kansas, committing just one attack error in the final points of the match. This season, she is averaging 4.31 kills per set and 4.72 points per set this season.

HUDSON: STRONG STARTS IN SET 1

• Eva Hudson has opened the last two matches with an errorless attack in Set 1.
• She's gone errorless in the opening game in nine of 19 matches, including four of five top-25 matchups.

PURDUE IN 5-SET MATCHES

• Purdue is 11-6 in five-set matches over the last three seasons, including 2-1 in 2024.
• The Boilermakers have gone errorless in the last two fifth sets: 13-0-27 at #2 Nebraska and 9-0-20 vs. #RV UCLA).
• The Boilers have hit over .400 in every 5th set this season (.429 at #16 Minnesota, .481% at #2 Nebraska, .450 vs. #RV UCLA).

14,870 STRONG: SETTING A BIG TEN-MATCH ATTENDANCE RECORD

• Purdue set the Big Ten regular-season match attendance record, the state of Indiana attendance record for volleyball, and the Purdue volleyball home attendance record last Saturday. Saturday's match vs. Wisconsin will tied the record, as it is already sold out. 
• Purdue eclipsed the old attendance record for a regular-season match between two Big Ten opponents, which stood at 10,927 (#23 Illinois at #2 Minnesota, 10/16/04). It will also set a Purdue volleyball home attendance record.
• The matches have been sold out for nearly a month. (Sold out on Friday, September 20).
• The last time Purdue volleyball played in Mackey Arena was in 2016 vs. Indiana, which also happened to be the Monon Spike match in front of a crowd of 8,240 fans.
• Last week's match was the second-largest crowd in women's volleyball this year.
• The last and only time Purdue and Wisconsin met in Mackey Arena was in 2008, which the attendance of 10,570 fans was second-largest crowd to witness a Big Ten regular-season match in conference history.

PURDUE IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS: 118 CONSECUTIVE WEEKS

• The program has been ranked for 118 consecutive weeks (since preseason 2017), the longest active streak in Purdue Athletics.  
• Since the 2021 spring season, Purdue has been ranked among the top-10 for 35 weeks.
• The Boilermakers' history of excellence includes 53 of the last 69 weeks ranked among the top-15 (75%).
• Purdue has spent the entirety of the 2024 season in the top-10 (includes preseason poll).

RECAP: #10 PURDUE VS. UCLA (23-25, 27-25, 25-20, 19-25, 15-11)

• Purdue ground out a 3-2 win vs. UCLA in the first-ever regular season meeting
• The Boilermakers posted a Big Ten match season-high .325 hitting %, which included an errorless Set 5's .450%.
• Six individual season and/or career-highs were set along the way.
• Taylor Anderson led with 51 assists, 12 digs, five blocks and a career-high seven kills. She was responsible for three kills and a block assist in Set 5, including a block and kill on back-to-back points for the 12-8 advantage. It was the fourth match this season she's reached 50 assists and the seventh match with a double-double.
• Eva Hudson led the attack with 24 kills on 56 attacks with two errors (.393%). The outside hitter tied a career-high 17 digs in the outing, the most since her freshman season (17 vs. Illinois, 9/30/22), and went errorless in three of the five sets.
• The Boilermakers came back to steal Set 2 in its largest set comeback of the season to win it 27-25. The 10-2 run to end the set included five UCLA set points, marking the second time this season that the Boilermakers have erased multiple set points during its comeback.
• Raven Colvin finished with a team-leading hitting % (.556) while registering 17 kills and 2 errors on 27 attacks and six total blocks (1-5). She came just two kills shy of tying her career-high and moved into #2 all-time in Purdue career blocks.
• Chicoine was errorless in four of the team's five sets as she finished the night with 15 kills and three attack errors on 52 swings (.231%).  

EVA HUDSON: A FORCE

• Hudson is averaging 4.31 kills per set, 2.44 digs per set and 4.72 points per set as a junior.
• Has set a Big Ten season-high hitting % in three of the last four matches, beginning with a .349 clip at #2 Nebraska (26-4-63), and most recently a .417 clip, the second-highest overall this season, vs. Indiana (17-2-36).
• She has posted a double-double in each week of Big Ten play, all of which have come on the road (at #2 Nebraska, at #16 Minnesota and Northwestern).
• At #2 Nebraska, went errorless and hit .500 (5-0-10) in Set 2, hit .500% in Set 3 (7-1-12) and errorless in Set 5 (7-0-18).
• Hudson went errorless in Set 2 vs. #10 Kentucky to help turn the tides, posting an 8-0-11 (.727) performance on the way to Purdue's 3-1 victory.
• Has posted at least one errorless set in every match this season.
• Went errorless for nearly the entire match at #10 Kansas until the very end, forfeiting one attack error with the score 20-20 in Set 4. She finished the match 17-1-53.
• Posted 15 kills over just two sets of action vs. #10 Kentucky and seven of Purdue's 15 points in Set 5 at #2 Nebraska.
• She is averaging a .268 clip, but hit over .400 in back-to-back matches over opening weekend.
• She's hit over .300 in 3 of 5 matches vs. top-10 foes, including just one error at Kansas.
• Hudson is on track to become Purdue's all-time leader in career kills/set (4.32 currently; record is 3.96).
• Last year, the 2023 AVCA Second Team All-America honoree ranked #1 in the Big Ten and #5 in the nation in kills (560) and #2 in the Big Ten, #12 in the nation in total points (605.5).
• She is the fastest Boilermaker to reach 1,000 career kills in the rally-scoring era and recorded more kills over her first two years than any Boilermaker to come through the program (1,075).
• Number of season / career double-doubles: 6 / 23
• Number of matches in season / career with 15+ kills: 13 / 59
• Number of matches in season / career with 20+ kills: 2 / 15
• Number of matches in season / career hitting .300% or above: 9 / 31
• Number of matches in season / career hitting .350% or above: 5 / 18
• Number of matches in season / career hitting .400% or above: 3 / 11
• Number of errorless sets in season: 26 

SMOOTH & STEADY: SETTER TAYLOR ANDERSON

• She leads not only all Big Ten setters with 67 blocks this season (second-most is 48 by USC's Mia Tuaniga), but all setters at Power 4 programs. In perspective, Anderson also owns more blocks than Big Ten middles Andi Jackson (Nebraska), Taylor Trammell (Penn State), and Devyn Robinson, Carter Booth and Anna Smrek (Wisconsin).
• Anderson has set Purdue to seven matches over .300%, including  .311% at #2 Nebraska, .310 vs. #10 Kentucky and .450 vs. UC Davis.
• Anderson has gotten more aggressive on the attack compared to her freshman season, averaging .60 kills per set compared to .31 from last season (35 kills in 2023 vs. 34 in 2024). In fact, her numbers are up in virtually every category including digs per set (1.97 vs.  2.27), assists per set (9.88 vs. 10.80) and blocks (.85 vs. .96).
• She set a season-high 13 digs alongside 47 assists in the four-set victory at Northwestern (10/4).
• Has posted 7 or more blocks four times this season (last: 7 at #2 Nebraska)
• 40 or more assist in a match this season: 10
• 45 or more assists in a match this season: 7
• 50 or more assists in a match this season: 4
• Double-doubles this season: 8 (including five of the last seven matches)