KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Eva Hudson watched as her teammate Kassie O'Brien set the ball toward the left side of the net. Hudson's eyes stayed locked in as she launched her body feet above the ground. Propelling her arm back, the 6-foot-1 Kentucky senior pounded the volleyball over the net.
It's match point in the fifth set of the NCAA women's college volleyball semifinals between No.1 seed Kentucky and No. 3 seed Wisconsin. After winning the second and fourth sets, Kentucky is one point from advancing to the national championship round.
In a packed T-Mobile Center, the sound of Hudson's palm smacking the volleyball echoed on the court. Two Wisconsin defenders rose above the net with their arms ready to block the shot, but Hudson's power was too much for even the best defenders in the country.
The Badgers blocked the shot out of bounds.
Hudson threw her arms up in the air as the cheers from the crowd reverberated throughout the arena. Her Wildcats rushed to meet her at center court. Hudson fell to the ground, alongside her teammates, in celebration.
Hudson's career-high 29 kills secured the Wildcats a spot in the national championship against No. 3 seed Texas A&M. One of the best hitters in the nation, Hudson has been preparing for this moment since the moment she put on the blue and white jersey.
ONE YEAR AGO, after leading the Big Ten in 2024 with 567 kills and 4.81 kills per set, the 20-year-old outside hitter entered the transfer portal following three seasons at Purdue. Kentucky and Hudson announced that she would spend her last year of eligibility as a Wildcat.
Santa came early, and he brought us another Wildcat‼️
— Kentucky Volleyball (@KentuckyVB) December 23, 2024
Welcome home, Eva Hudson!@evahud12 x #WeAreUK pic.twitter.com/8K9C7oELGQ
Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner knew immediately what the power hitter's impact would be on the team.
"She is an extremely talented player who adds a dynamic level of attacking to our offense," Skinner, who led the Wildcats to their first national title in 2020, said in a statement at the time of her transfer. "She also has a variety of tools in her game that will help us compete for a championship in 2025."
Hudson knew that transferring to Kentucky would set her up to win a national championship. With Skinner at the helm, Hudson said she felt confident that the coaching staff would push her and her teammates to their potential.
"Iron sharpens iron kind of situation," Hudson said.
Hudson wasted no time in showing the SEC that she is one of the top volleyball hitters in the country. With 533 kills and 4.595 kills per set, Hudson was named SEC Player of the Year, SEC Newcomer of the Year and first-team All-SEC. Before leading her team to the national championship game, she was named a finalist for the 2025 AVCA Player of the Year Award. The powerhouse hitter, alongside her teammates, catapulted the Wildcats to a 30-2 season. Now, there's just one more game to claim it all.
Hudson said that since she joined the Wildcats, she knew that her new team would be on the biggest stage in women's college volleyball.
"As soon as we got into season, and like, immediately, we clicked. We had three new transfers, three new freshmen. The girls that had been on the team prior were so welcoming. Literally, our first practice together. We all just started clicking," Hudson said. "I knew right off the bat, we had something special. Now, it's down to the execution."
Despite the pressure to live up to her hype at Kentucky, Hudson emphasized her team's ability to remember that "it's just a game." To curtail some of that pressure during the NCAA tournament, Hudson and her teammates started drawing smiley faces on their hands or somewhere visible to remind them to "play with joy."
AT THE START of the semifinals against the Badgers, Hudson struggled to find her momentum. With the Wildcats falling in the first set of the night, facing their largest margin of defeat in a single set since 2018, Hudson glanced down at the smiley face scribbled onto her left hand and responded with four kills in the red zone to solidify Kentucky's 25-22 second-set win.
"Every single timeout, everyone would be like, 'OK, now tap your smiley face,'" Hudson said. "It's just kind of a good reminder that at the end of the day, it's still a game. And I kind of go back to little Eva when she came into this game and playing it because it was fun, and I was having joy."
But it wasn't until the fourth set, trailing Wisconsin by one set, that Hudson revealed why she was a force to be reckoned with on the court. With nine kills in the fourth set, Hudson found her power.
"We came out a little timid, not knowing what to do in the first set," Hudson said. "By the fourth and fifth, we found that rhythm ... just swinging away. I knew my people behind me were covering."
From the sideline, Hudson's mom, Stacey, witnessed her daughter make the face in the fourth set -- the face Hudson makes when she locks in and refuses to let any obstacles get in her way.
"My mom always says when I like set my jaw, even when I was little, I set my jaw and it's a sign that I'm not going to let anything stop me," Hudson said. "And in that moment, I knew that my teammates were rallying behind me. We weren't frazzled like at the beginning of the match. I could bring more intensity."
For the Badgers, despite having a higher hitting percentage for the night, there was a noticeable shift with Hudson -- a shift that even they weren't prepared for at this stage.
"Hudson stepped out of the phone booth with a cape on," Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield said. "We knew where it was going. It didn't matter."
As their match rolled into the fifth set, Hudson remembered to pause after the fourth set and look into her teammates' eyes. The split-second of eye contact sparked that joy for Hudson and reminded her to stay in the moment. Hudson said it also instilled confidence in not only herself but her teammates.
Blocking out the noise from the crowd and opposing team, Hudson stared at her teammates and said, "I've got you. We've got this."