Everyone that Allie Hudgins spoke with about her recruiting told her the same thing. They all said she would have to give up something in the end in order to find the best place to continue her volleyball life.
The 6-foot-4, five-star outside hitter and 19th-ranked prospect in the 2027 recruiting class, according to PrepVolleyball.com, wanted to play for a school with national championship aspirations. She also wanted a coaching staff is competitive, but caring, and a campus life big enough to meet new people, but intimate enough to develop meaningful relationships along the way.
Much to her surprise, Creighton checked off all of those boxes. That’s why when she got off the phone with new head coach Brian Rosen and his staff at 9:45 a.m. on June 15, the first thing she told her parents was that they needed go buy some balloons.
Before heeding their daughters wishes, they couldn’t help but first shed a few tears after their little girl had just made one of the biggest decisions of her young life.
“It’s such a long process,” Allie’s mother Laura said. “There is so much work that goes into it.”
Her father, Tom, added that the emotions are impossible to suppress when they think about back on the path to this point.
“It’s her lifelong dream,” he said. “[Allie] has poured her heart and soul into [volleyball] since she was 7 years old. This is kind of the fulfillment of her dreams and passions.”
Creighton first got on Allie Hudgins’ radar at the 2022 Final Four in Omaha. She met then head coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth at a meet-and-greet and toured the campus in the dead of winter with two inches of snow on the ground and mid-to-low 20’s temps for the high.
Conventional wisdom would suggest that wintertime in Nebraska might not leave the best impression on a 13-year-old from Texas. Hudgins said she couldn’t help but fall in love with the place.
“It was freezing cold,” Hudgins said. “But I just loved walking around campus. It was beautiful.”
The more she learned about Creighton in her visit to camp this month and the lone pitch the coaching staff made in their 1-hour, 15-minute phone call the morning of June 15 only served to reaffirm her original sentiment two and a half years ago.
“I really like that it’s a smaller school,” Hudgins said. “I can have more personal relationships with people, and I love the culture. I’ve only heard amazing things about it, and I just know that it’s a really special place. I’m really excited to be a part of it.”
That friendly attitude shifted noticeable when she was asked about the actual volleyball aspect of her recruitment. Make no mistake about it, Hudgins isn’t heading to Omaha in two years just to have a good time. She wants to win.
“I really wanted to play at a competitive school that was reaching for national championships,” Hudgins said. “I think we have the opportunity to do that here.”
A beautiful campus: check. An intimate campus lifestyle: check. A compassionate and competitive coaching staff: check. A program with sky-high aspirations: check. Even the man she and her parents purchased the balloons from was from Omaha.
Hudgins said fate was not being very subtle. When she called Rosen and his staff back later that afternoon, she hid behind the balloons and popped out after they answered to deliver her commitment. She said their reaction was a moment she’ll never forget.
“Everyone told me going into this process that I would have to give something up,” Hudgins said. “I feel like I’m getting everything I want and more with Creighton.”