From left: WKU Women’s Volleyball Coach Travis Hudson and outside hitter Katie Howard (26) speak about the upcoming season during media day on Monday, Aug. 19.

Travis Hudson has entered his third decade coaching Western Kentucky’s volleyball team.

In that span, Hudson elevated the program from a scuffling member of the Sun Belt Conference to something much more – a perennial conference champion in first the Sun Belt and now Conference USA, a regular in NCAA tournaments and a staple in the American Volleyball Coaches Association top-25 poll.

The Tops have churned out great teams and great players time and again under Hudson’s watch. This year promises more of the same, even if the challenges are different.

“I still love it, I still get excited every day,” Hudson said. “I’m a jigsaw puzzle person and I still love dumping that jigsaw puzzle out and seeing if I can make all the pieces fit.”

Hudson has less pieces than normal to work with heading into Friday’s season opener against Morehead State for the first of three matches in the University of Kentucky-hosted Bluegrass Battle. After Morehead, WKU will face Northern Kentucky on Saturday morning before finally taking on the No. 9-ranked Wildcats in the afternoon.

WKU, which was ranked just outside the AVCA preseason top 25 – checking in at No. 26, based on votes – enters this season with just 12 players on the roster. Hudson said he prefers to carry 14 or 15 players, but this smaller group does have its advantages.

“We only have 12 kids on our roster and I honestly think you’ll see 12 kids play most weekends,” Hudson said. “The challenge for our team is going to be can I step aside and let someone else do it today if I’m not in a good rhythm without it impacting me, confidence-wise. Because that’s the thing this team will face because it’s not you’re playing poorly, get out of there – it’s hey, we’ve got another kid that can do it and if you can’t find your rhythm she probably can. And boy, that’s a comforting thing for a coach to have in place.”

Gone are five players off last season’s 30-5 squad that swept the Conference USA regular season and tournament titles – WKU has claimed 17 of a possible 20 CUSA championships, including eight of 10 tournament titles, since joining the league.

The most significant of those losses is outside hitter Paige Briggs, the only player in program history with five NCAA tournament appearances and an undefeated CUSA regular season record. Briggs led the Tops with 457 kills and a .329 hitting clip – second highest in the nation from any player who took 1000+ swings. She also compiled 275 digs, a 95.9% success rate in serve-receive, and led the team with 58 aces from the service line in 2023. Briggs was an All-CUSA first-team selection, the CUSA Alyssa Cavanaugh Player of the Year, CUSA All-Tournament MVP, and repeated as the AVCA South Region Player of the Year.

Briggs, a third-team AVCA All-American last year, is now playing in the Pro Volleyball Federation League.

“We have really good players and you don’t replace a kid like Paige – we don’t have any singular player that’s going to go do what Paige can do,” Hudson said. “But I remember sitting here last year and people were asking me about the post-Lauren Matthews era. And Lauren had led the nation in hitting percentage and how were we ever going to replace a player like that with three freshman middles … and we were a top-25 team and went to the second round of the NCAA tournament. This program is bigger than any one player, it’s bigger than any one coach. We have a culture in place where kids come here and grow and get better.”

Senior outside hitter Kaylee Cox is likely to step more fully into the spotlight this season, entering her second year at WKU after transferring from Missouri. The 6-foot-3 Cox made an immediate impact in 2023, tallying 392 kills and a .318 hitting percentage to earn first-team all-conference and AVCA All-Region honors.

“I think this year is definitely going to be different for me, just stepping into more of a leadership role,” Cox said. “I think just going in I’m trying to lead more and kind of help my teammates along the way. We have two freshman outsides and I’ve been really trying to help them get ready.”

Redshirt junior Callie Bauer is also back after an outstanding sophomore season, when she earned AVCA All-Region Honorable Mention, All-CUSA First Team honors after leading WKU and finishing second in CUSA with 1,246 assists for a 10.47 per set average. The top offensive setter in Conference USA, Bauer picked up 136 kills for a .375 hitting percentage for a 1.14 kill/set average, tallied 27 service aces and 186 digs last year.

Right-side hitter Kenadee Coyle (second team All-CUSA) and a pair of CUSA All-Freshman selections from 2023, Gabby Weihe and Izzy Van De Wiele, are also back. Hudson thinks even after losing middle hitter Logan Grevengoed, last season’s CUSA Freshman of the Year, as a transfer to Illinois State that the Hilltoppers’ middle is stronger this season.

Jack-of-all-trades outside hitter Katie Howard and defensive specialist Abby Schaefer are also back, while Rutgers transfer Maddyson Chitty, a libero/defensive specialist, should provide an immediate impact.

“We’re going to have great balance and we’re going to have five offensive players out there that can hurt you and they’re going to be getting the ball from an All-American setter,” Hudson said.

“ … Last year, Kaylee and Paige, you kind of knew the ball was going there and nobody could seem to find an answer. This year it’s going to be in the way that I prefer, if you want me to be honest. We’re going to be so complete offensively, there’s no person in our lineup that won’t be able to carry a load.”

HALL OF FAME HONOR

Hudson was named as an inductee as part of the 33rd class into the WKU Athletic Hall of Fame on Monday.

Hudson described the news as “the ultimate honor.”

“To be in this situation and for that to be an honor that’s going to be bestowed upon me, I’m just filled with gratitude,” Hudson said. “I’ve always said my whole entire career that I’ve never felt like a college volleyball coach. I’ve always felt like the Western Kentucky volleyball coach and this is a very reaffirming moment for that mentality for sure.”

For his career, Hudson holds a 752-227 (.764) mark, as his only head coaching job has been at WKU. Hudson was named Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year five times and Conference USA Coach of the Year six times while being an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Coach of the Year finalist eight times after earning the South Region Coach of the Year award on eight occasions.

He has 27 winning seasons in his career, as he has 25 seasons with 20 or more wins as well as 10 campaigns with 30 or more wins.

RUGGED SCHEDULE

Hudson describes this year’s schedule as “unlike anything we’ve ever put together here.”

The Hilltoppers will face four teams ranked in the AVCA preseason top 25 in their first nine matches – Saturday’s road test against No. 9 Kentucky, then home matches against No. 15 Tennessee on Sept. 10 followed by home games against No. 24 Marquette and No. 22 Dayton – both on the same day at E.A. Diddle Arena as part of the Hyatt Place Invitational.

That doesn’t even include a Sept. 6 road match against Michigan State or a Sept. 14 home match against Illinois.

“We always play a competitive schedule,” Hudson said. “As you guys know, I”m always pushing us to build an RPI that allows us a chance for an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament should we not win Conference USA. And certainly this schedule will do that, but it’s going to do it in a very different way. We’ve never strung together the kind of challenges that we have this year.”

Hudson said there could be some lumps along the way for his team, but the payoff is getting the Hilltoppers well-prepared for what is shaping up as a tough CUSA schedule.

“We could play outstanding volleyball in the first month of the year and be a .500 team,” Hudson said. “But here’s the thing – if we are, we’re in really good shape. If we’re above .500 four weeks into the season, our RPI is going to be on fire with the schedule that we’re playing and that’s all that really matters.”

After opening the season with six road games, the Tops get a rematch with Tennessee – the team that ended their postseason run in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year in Knoxville, Tennessee. This time, they will face off at Diddle.

“I mean, they’re amazing team and the chance to play them in the NCAA tournament was also awesome – they have a great environment there,” Howard said. “And I think it’s nice to then on the flip side to have it here in our environment. I think it’s just going to be a competitive match and we’re all really excited.”