Purdue Sports Update Nov. 22

RAMOS TAKES DOWN #1 NOTO IN NWCA ALL-STAR CLASSIC

 Purdue Wrestling’s No. 4 Matt Ramos earned a 10-2 major decision over No. 1 Anthony Noto of Lock Haven at the NWCA All-Star Classic on Tuesday night, marking his second victory over a top-ranked wrestler in 2023.

The junior Ramos has already amassed an incredible resume of performances on the sports’ biggest stages and he certainly added to his legend tonight. In front of a packed Rec Hall, Purdue’s 60^th All-American showed off the talent that earned him the spot as the first program’s first preseason No. 1 wrestler.

After a scoreless first, Ramos finished off a double-leg through a strong Noto defense to put the first takedown on the board and lead 3-1 in the second. The advantage allowed him to choose his preferred neutral position to start the third period and he made the most of it. With 20 second left in the match, a desperate Noto shot in looking for points and Ramos punished him for it. He flipped the Lock Haven man onto his back for a six-point move as time expired to take his 10-2 major decision.

Ever the trailblazer, Ramos was the fourth Boilermaker to wrestle in the All-Star Classic, but the first to win his match. He was also head coach Tony Ersland‘s first representative in the competition.

The event is an exhibition, so the win will not count towards his official NCAA record or his RPI, but it is his 27^th victory over a ranked opponent and moves his career record to 63-17.

Up Next

Ramos will rejoin the rest of the team when they travel to west for the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 1-2. He finished in second at the tournament last season.

WBB DROPS BAHAMAS CONTEST TO GEORGIA

NASSAU, The Bahamas – The Purdue women’s basketball team could not overcome an offensive slump at the start of the fourth quarter in a 65-57 loss to Georgia on Wednesday night in the final game of the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship.  

The Boilermakers (2-3) trailed by just two going into the fourth, but the Bulldogs (5-1) went on a 14-2 run over the first 5:34 of the final frame to pull away.

Purdue matched its season high with six 3-pointers on the night. Madison Layden led the Boilermakers’ four players in double figures with 14 points. The Kokomo senior was 5-of-12 from the field with a quartet of triples.

Mary Ashley Stevenson and Abbey Ellis each tallied 11 points, while Rashunda Jones added 10 points off the bench. Purdue shot 36.8% from the field for the game.

The difference came in second chance points and points off turnovers. Georgia recorded 20 points off 17 Purdue giveaways, but Purdue managed just eight points on 15 Bulldog miscues. On the glass, Purdue lost the battle 43-31. The Boilermakers turned 11 offensive boards into 14 points as Georgia tallied 19 points on 18 offensive rebounds.

Stevenson and Jones tallied eight of Purdue’s 12 points in the opening frame. Georgia started on a 6-2 run, before the rookie duo pulled the Boilermakers back even at 12-12 with two minutes to play in the first.

After the Bulldogs extended their lead back out to six in the second, Stevenson went on a personal 5-0 run to bring Purdue back within one. Layden connected on a 3-pointer with 2:13 to go in the second quarter to give Purdue its first lead at 26-24, but the Bulldogs bounced back to make it a 28-28 game at the break.

Layden and Ellis combined for the Boilermakers first eight points of the second half to give Purdue its largest lead at 36-31. Layden halted several Georgia runs with a perfect 3-for-3 mark from behind the arc in the third.

From the 4:08 mark of the third until the 4:26 mark of the fourth, Georgia outscored Purdue 24-7 to open a 14-point advantage. Jones tallied the Boilermakers’ final six points to cut the gap to single digits and the final horn. Purdue made its final four shots of the game.

NOTES
• Purdue took the all-time series lead with Georgia 2-1.
• The Boilermakers scored 15 points on the fastbreak.
• For the fourth time in three seasons, Abbey Ellis led Purdue in rebounds with six.
• Jeanae Terry finished with four assists to give her 400 in her career at Purdue, passing Katie Gearlds for 13th in program history.

UP NEXT
After playing four major conference opponents in the first five games of the year, the Boilermakers return to Mackey Arena on Sunday for a 2 p.m. tip against Southern Indiana on B1G+.

The 2023-24 Purdue women’s basketball season is presented by Purdue Global, Purdue University’s online educational solution for working adults.

SIX BOILERMAKERS EARN ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT HONORS

Six members of the Purdue soccer program have been named to the Academic All-District Team by the College Sports Communicators (formerly CoSIDA).

Seniors Charlotte Cyr, Nicole Kevdzija and Emily Mathews and sophomores Sabrina Blount, Kayla Budish and Olivia Hall are honored for their success both academically and athletically during the 2023 season and throughout their careers.

This year’s six awardees are the most in program history and the maximum that are allowed per team to be recognized this year by CSC. Five Boilermakers were honored last season, Purdue’s first academic all-district accolades since 2019.

Purdue soccer has now received a total of 24 Academic All-District awards, with 13 coming since 2018. The first 11 honors were earned between 2003 and 2013. Prior to last year, the Boilermakers hadn’t collected more than three accolades in a season.

Kevdzija and Mathews are honored for the second consecutive year while Blount, Budish, Cyr and Hall all earned the recognition for the first time in their careers.

To be considered, student-athletes must maintain a minimum 3.50 GPA and be at least a sophomore academically and athletically. On the field, they must be a starter or key reserve that has played in at least 90 percent of their team’s games or started at least 66 percent of the team’s matches. Additionally, honorees must be in at least their second year at their current school unless they are a transfer student.

Blount played in all 18 games as a defender in 2023 with 11 starts, including every Big Ten contest. She logged 1,140 minutes and recorded four shots. In her career, Blount has played in 34 games with 27 starts and has six shots and one shot on goal in more than 2,500 minutes. A native of Cedar Park, Texas, Blount is pursuing a degree in animal sciences.

Budish scored a team-high-tying three goals, one of them a game-winner, with two assists for eight points, second-most on the team in 2023. She played in 16 games with 13 starts and totaled 790 minutes as a forward with 16 shots and nine shots on goal. Budish has played in 33 games with 30 starts in her two-year career and has scored seven goals with four assists for 18 points in more than 2,000 career minutes. She was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team in her inaugural campaign in 2022. From Brookfield, Wisconsin, Budish is majoring in brain and behavioral sciences.

Cyr played in and started 17 games in goal in her first season as a Boilermaker in 2023. She made 73 saves for a .716 save percentage and a 1.77 goals-against average in 1,476 minutes. In her four-year career that began at Dartmouth, Cyr played in 45 games with 43 starts and made 236 career saves for a .787 save percentage and a 1.51 goals-against average in more than 3,800 minutes. She is an All-Ivy and All-New England honoree at Dartmouth, where she graduated with a degree in environmental science. The Wethersfield, Connecticut, native will earn a certificate in environmental policy from Purdue.

Hall started all 18 games in 2023 and was second on the team with 1,533 minutes played as a defender. She has played in 28 career games with 24 starts in two seasons and has notched more than 2,000 minutes. Hall hails from Overland Park, Kansas, and is majoring in public health.

Kevdzija scored one goal with one assist for three points with seven shots and two shots on goal in her senior season. She played in all 18 games with 15 starts as a midfielder in 1,060 minutes. In four seasons, Kevdzija scored six goals, three of them game-winners, and notched four assists for 16 points. She played in 69 games with 54 starts in more than 4,500 career minutes. Recognized on the Academic All-Region Team in 2022, Kevdzija is a multiple-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. She is a native of Strongsville, Ohio, and will graduate in May with a degree in electrical engineering.

Mathews led the Boilermakers with five assists and nine points in her senior season and had two goals with 36 shots and 14 shots on goal. She started all 18 games as a midfielder and saw 1,350 minutes on the pitch. In her career, Mathews totaled 21 assists, fourth-most in team history, with nine goals for 39 points. She started 69 games and played nearly 5,800 minutes. An All-North Region Third Team and All-Big Ten First Team honoree in 2021, Mathews also earned Academic All-Region Team honors in 2022 and was named to the Academic All-Big Ten Team during her Purdue career. From Macomb, Michigan, she will graduate in May with a mechanical engineering degree.

HUDSON, ANDERSON NAMED TO BIG TEN WEEKLY AWARDS

Following wins vs. #3 Wisconsin and Maryland, Eva Hudson was selected Big Ten Player of the Week alongside Taylor Anderson as Freshman of the Week.

The honor is the first of the season for Hudson and the second honor for Anderson (last: Setter of the Week on Sept. 11).

Both underclassmen produced career-setting performances in the take down of No. 3 Wisconsin last Friday night before turning around and finishing off Maryland, 3-0, just 24 hours later.

The Boilermakers were led by Eva Hudson in both matches, , who posted a double-double, including a career-high 30 kills and 11 digs to join Purdue’s elite 30-kill club. The sophomore was just the 12th Boilermaker in program history, including the first since 2018 (Sherridan Atkinson, 32 kills vs. Penn State, 10/27/18), to accomplish the feat. Meanwhile, in the third set alone, Hudson hit .588% behind 11 kills and one error on 17 attacks to lead the way, and scored nearly a third of the team’s points in Set 5, registering five kills in the fifth set. The performance was rounded out by a career-high two block solos, which both came in the first set.

Just 24 hours later, the Fort Wayne, Indiana native led the team to a sweep vs. Maryland with a team-high of 18 kills.

Hudson led the league in both points per set (6.69) and kills per set (6.00) in the match.

Meanwhile,  Anderson dished out a double-double of her own vs. the Badgers with a career-high 57 assists, the most by a Boilermaker in five years (60 by Hayley Bush as a redshirt freshman at Penn State, 10/27/18). Moreover, it was the most assists by a Big Ten player in a match last week. Additionally, her performance marked the seventh double-double of the season and the third 50-plus assist match in the last four outings. Defensively, she totaled seven blocks (1-6), to match her career-best, set in the match prior vs. Michigan State.

On the weekend, the setter averaged 11.13 assists per set and her 89 total assists were the most by a Big Ten player last week.

The Boilermakers guided the way for Purdue’s sixth victory vs. a top-25 opponent this season, including the highest ranked win since 2021.
It is the second consecutive week Purdue has earned Big Ten weekly accolades. After setting a program-record for awards in a single season last week, Purdue improves 14 individual honors this season.

Purdue closes out the regular season on the road this week in Michigan with another pair of matches within 24 hours. First, Purdue will travel to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan on Friday at 6:30 p.m. ET on Big Ten Network, followed by a drive over to Michigan State for the regular-season finale on Saturday. The Boilermakers are scheduled to take on the Spartans, a team they faced a week ago in Holloway (W, 3-1). The match will be streamed on B1G+ at 6 p.m. ET.

JONES NAMED BIG TEN FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK

Purdue women’s basketball guard Rashunda Jones was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week after a 20-point performance off the bench to lead the Boilermakers to a 72-58 win over Texas A&M on Thursday.

The South Bend native was 8-of-11 from the field and 4-of-6 from the line with a pair of rebounds and a block in 22 minutes off the bench. Entering the game after Purdue fell into an 8-0 deficit, Jones scored six points over the remainder of the period.

Jones stepped up to keep Purdue ahead with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the second half.

Jones is the first Purdue Big Ten Freshman of the Week since Karissa McLaughlin won the award on Nov. 13, 2017. She became the first Boilermaker rookie since McLaughlin in 2017-18 to drop 20 points in a game. The Boilermakers open their time at the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship today at 4 p.m. against Florida. Purdue will face Georgia on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Check out the full preview.

The 2023-24 Purdue women’s basketball season is presented by Purdue Global, Purdue University’s online educational solution for working adults.