A theme, not particularly new, has reemerged in bold letters this NCAA Tournament: Purdue, and by extension Eva Hudson, will punish you from the left side of the net until you want to go home, and then until you are forced by the scoreboard to go home.

And there’s nothing you can do about it.

Hudson led her fourth-seeded Boilermakers (26-6) over unseeded Loyola-Chicago (22-11) 3-0 Friday in the tournament’s second round. It kept the Boilers undefeated in six postseason sets after a first-round sweep a night ago.

Holloway Gymnasium, with its 2,000-plus fans packed shoulder to shoulder and pushing the limits of fire codes, has risen to the level of postseason play. Purdue has with it. In set two, Allie Hornung punched the ball over the net while laying on the floor. In set three, Hudson nearly levelled some of her smaller teammates when she chased down a ball in the direction of the Purdue bench, saving it with one arm.

Purdue was the better team and played like scrappy underdogs. If the floor wasn’t made of vinyl, some of the Boilers’ numbers may have rubbed off for all the time they spent diving on it.

Hudson’s stats were in rarefied air: 20 kills and a hitting percentage beyond .500 – a career record .562. And some of the Boilers’ more unsung could do anything in any moment: Hornung supplemented her miracle save with nine more digs, and substitute Kenna Wollard dominated the first set and added five blocks by night’s end.

Purdue will move on to the regional site to play up to two more matches until the Final Four. The regional site is not yet determined.

- Loyola-Chicago was on a roll coming into Friday's match. It had won 39 out of 41 sets previously, sweeping NCAA Tournament game winner Dayton and No. 5 seed BYU along the way.

- Eva Hudson set a career-high in hitting percentage, at .562. Her previous high was .556 in last year's first tournament round, but she had four less kills on that occasion with 16.

- Purdue did something Loyola-Chicago had barely seen this season: it served the ball short, just over the net, rather than the typical hard and long balls. It totaled five serving errors, but the Ramblers were thrown by it.

"I haven't watched them receive a short serve all season," Purdue head coach Dave Shondell said. "I watched, like, the last six matches, and nobody had served a short ball."

Loyola outside hitter Esma Ajonovic said Purdue knew her team liked to operate from the back of the court, and that she herself was used to running across the court with space in front. Loyola coach Amanda Berkley called a timeout and changed her team's plan.

- Shondell: "We have more proven commodities. We're a Big Ten conference school, and you're likely to recruit better volleyball athletes in the Big Ten than you might in the Atlantic 10. That's just the facts of life. Doesn't matter if it's volleyball, basketball, football, that's just the way that it is."

- Outside hitter Kenna Wollard on her perfect 4-of-4 start on attacks and a block assist in the first set:

"I made it my goal tonight to do that, I knew that I had to go out there and do my job, and a big part of that was playing good defense, putting up a good block, and also being strong offensively."

- Taylor Anderson on whether tonight was the best defense and passing combination her team has had this season:

"I mean, maybe I don't know. I just think with our passers and our defense, it makes it so much easier to do my job and have all the options available. So maybe it stands out, but I guess that's a good thing if I can't remember if it stands out, because then that means they're always doing that."

-Dave Shondell: "The number that jumps out to me is that in two nights, Eva Hudson had 42 kills in six sets. My math tells me that's, what, seven a set in the NCAA Tournament? That's pretty good. And she had three errors. Forty-two kills and three errors. That's just an incredible performance."