By JEFF NATIONS / jeff.nations@bgdailynews.com

Western Kentucky’s volleyball team has already earned at least half of a Conference USA regular-season championship.

Now, the Hilltoppers will have two chances to claim that title outright when Liberty comes to town for back-to-back matches Thursday and Friday at E.A. Diddle Arena. Win either match, and WKU would secure its sixth consecutive CUSA regular-season championship.

“I don’t think there’s anything more impressive than winning a regular-season championship,” WKU coach Travis Hudson said. “I say it a lot because you have to be good over the course of a couple months. Conference tournaments are what everybody talks about, and I get it because it’s postseason and all that, but you only have to be good for three days. This is about being good for week after week after week when you have everything imaginable thrown at you and long road trips and all those kind of things.

“Any conference championship, I think, is something really, really meaningful because it speaks to who your team is. But we didn’t start this out with the intention of sharing it with anybody.”

WKU (23-6 overall, 16-0 CUSA) is on a 90-match win streak against conference opponents that dates back to 2019. The last six of those wins, including this past weekend’s road sweep of Sam Houston State, have come without Hudson or associate head coach Craig Bere in attendance after both were injured in separate incidents on the same night playing a volleyball league match on Oct. 23. Hudson suffered a Lisfranc fracture in his left foot, with Bere suffering a torn Achilles tendon about 15 minutes later.

In their absence, assistant coaches Jena Otec and Kristi Griffin and graduate assistant Kyle Cohan handled the coaching duties.

Hudson said he and Bere plan to be back for Thursday’s 6 p.m. matchup against Liberty (13-15, 7-9). The Flames feature two of the top-10 hitters in CUSA in Kate Gammer (378 kills) and Kamryn Bacus (239 kills).

Hudson joked that he and Bere would probably “have scooter races from one end of the court to the other.”

“My plan is for both Craig and I to return to the sideline this week,” said Hudson, who showed off an old-fashioned bell his players acquired for his scooter. “Our main reason for not being able to go last week was the travel aspect. Flying was a bit of a concern with blood clots and different things like that so close to surgery.”

NATIONAL LEADERS

WKU features a pair of players ranked in the top five individually among NCAA Division 1 leaders this season. Redshirt junior setter Callie Bauer is currently fourth in the nation in total assists with 1,111, while sophomore middle blocker Izzy Van De Wiele is fourth in total blocks (147).

“Our team is I think third in the country in hitting efficiency, which is a statement to Callie Bauer too,” Hudson said. “Year in, year out Callie has put our team in that kind of position with what she’s doing. Callie would be the first person to tell you it’s a combination of how we’re handling the first contact, which has gotten better throughout the year, and what our hitters are doing with it on that third touch.”

As for Van De Wiele, Hudson marveled at her rapid improvement since arriving on campus as a raw recruit.

“If there wasn’t so much other great stuff going on, that kid would be the biggest story,” Hudson said. “If you go back 16 months, we weren’t sure she was going to come back the next day – that is absolutely not an exaggeration. I would somewhat hold my breath until I saw her walk by to go in the gym for practice because she was just so overwhelmed with this level because she came from a pretty low-level background in the sport. You know from last year, it was two thirds of the way through our season before we ever put her in our lineup.

” … Now you fast forward and she is one of the elite blockers in the country by every measurement. She is a game changer with what she’s done.”

A FIRST FOR HUDSON

Friday’s regular-season final will feature a unique giveaway for the first 1,500 fans in attendance – a Travis Hudson bobblehead figurine. Fans will get a voucher before the match and can pick up their bobblehead after.

“It is my first bobblehead – as if the last month of my life couldn’t get more uncomfortable,” Hudson said. “I have a really good friend who joked that with a Hudson head, a bobblehead is just going to sit there hung over to the side because there’s no way that little spring can hold that thing up.”

HALL OF FAME WEEKEND

It will be extremely busy week for Hudson, who is set to be inducted into the WKU Athletics Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024 on Saturday. The 5 p.m. induction dinner will take place at Diddle Arena.

“It is an incredible honor to go through what I’m going through right now and to be inducted into the Hall of Fame here at Western Kentucky, a place that I have loved since I stepped on campus as a student,” Hudson said. “It’s an incredible honor. This will be an incredibly uncomfortable week for me. I stand on the shoulders of every player, every staff member I’ve ever had here. And if nothing else, the last three weeks have shown that this is not done singularly because like I said I’ve been sitting on my couch with my leg in the air. So there are so many people who have been involved in this process that have grown this thing to the level that it’s become.”

Hudson has amassed 775 wins during his 30-year tenure as head coach at WKU, with 32 conference championships (regular season and tournament) and 16 NCAA Tournament appearances.

“I would like this to be a celebration of what this program has become because like (former men’s basketball coach) Tony Bennett said recently when he stepped away at Virginia, I’m just renting this office,” Hudson said. “It’s only mine for a little while. I’m really, really proud of everything that’s been accomplished but the most meaningful part of the weekend for me will be seeing all of the former players that will be trickling back into town to be part of this whole weekend.”