Travis Hudson is aware of the scenario most are expecting at this week’s Conference USA Volleyball Championship.

Hudson’s Western Kentucky squad, the top seed and winners of eight of the last 10 CUSA tournament championships, are at this point considered almost an automatic to reach Sunday’s championship – probably against No. 2 seed UTEP, the tournament host at Memorial Gym in El Paso, Texas.

“I think a lot of people feel like we’re on a collision course with UTEP in the finals,” Hudson said. “Again, on paper I think that’s probably accurate. We’ve been fairly dominant in the league, but Liberty put us to the test, FIU took us to the brink. I’ve said this a lot – there are a lot of really good coaches in this league and capable teams and so I don’t think you’ll see the whole tournament go by seed.”

WKU (25-6) opens play against No. 8 seed Florida International. It’s not as easy as it looks – the Panthers pushed the Hilltoppers to five sets in back-to-back matches Oct. 12-13 in Miami.

“This FIU team, we got out barely alive,” Hudson said. “We won in five twice, so they’re a team that’s going to know they can go down there and compete with us. But it is what it is. We’ve found a way every match.”

Despite WKU’s long track record of postseason success, Hudson doesn’t consider his squad the favorite to win the CUSA Tournament – that mantle should be worn by the host Miners, who enter play 26-4 overall and ranked No. 36 in the NCAA’s RPI ratings. WKU is No. 53 in RPI.

“We’re the one seed going in – we’ve earned the right to be, clearly,” Hudson said. “But again, we’re not the favorite … UTEP hosting on their home court, that’s a big-time momentum shift in their direction. We were able to go down there and get a couple in the regular season, but they were far from easy.”

NCAA HOPES

Hudson put together an ultra-competitive nonconference schedule to start the season in hopes of making his team bubble-proof come NCAA Tournament selection time.

That produced mixed results for the Tops, who were competitive but unsuccessful in winning matches against the likes of Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan State, Marquette and Dayton.

The hoped-for RPI boost didn’t really materialize, leaving WKU at risk as a potential at-large selection – should it not win the CUSA Tournament and earn an automatic bid.

“It’s hard to say,” Hudson said. “We’re going to be right there on that bubble. It’s a word you hate to say, but we’re going to be a bubble team. We didn’t knock out any of those big-time opponents in the nonconference schedule, but we have two or three top-50 wins which is usually a really good qualifying mark for us. Our RPI continues to climb week to week. I feel like to be honest, we could probably at least need to get to the finals to feel really good.

“Actually I shouldn’t say that … to feel really good, we need to go win that thing because you don’t want to put it in the hands of anybody but yourselves.”

STREAK EXTENDED

WKU’s two-match sweep of visiting Liberty to close out the regular season last week extended a staggering win streak against CUSA opponents to 92 straight matches.

“Pretty incredible, and now we have to think about that streak for another year,” Hudson said. “What is it, 92 – 92 straight and now it will go into next season. We’ve done a lot of special things in our program, but I’m not sure that there’s any that are more impressive than that just because of everything you have to overcome to go undefeated in a season.

” … It’s amazing that Kenedee Coyle and Katie Howard, our two fourth-year seniors, will walk away from here never knowing what it feels like to lose a Conference USA match. Just a crazy thing, done one day at a time.”

BACK TO NORMAL, ALMOST

WKU’s coaching staff will be at full strength in El Paso.

Hudson and associate head coach Craig Bere are both making the trip, their first road appearances since both sustained injuries the same night playing volleyball in late October – Hudson from a Lisfranc injury to his foot and Bere from a torn Achilles tendon, with each requiring surgery. In their absence, assistant coaches Jena Otec and Kristi Griffin and graduate assistant Kyle Cohan handled the coaching duties.

Hudson and Bere are making this flight, with the risks of complications lessened with more time elapsed since their surgeries.

“We’ve all kind of settled back into our roles, with the exception that you can only designate one coach to be up to talk to officials and things of that nature,” Hudson said. “Even though I’m kind of settled back into the head coaching role, I’m leaving that in Jenna’s hands where she can still get up and communicate just because of the flow of it.”

STILL IN SHOCK

Even though he has known the plans for a few months, Hudson remains shocked by WKU’s decision to erect a statue in his likeness on campus.

WKU Athletic Director Todd Stewart made the announcement at Saturday’s Hall of Fame induction banquet at Diddle, where Hudson was among this year’s class of inductees.

“It’s hard to put into words, it’s hard to get your mind around an honor like that,” Hudson said. “That’s obviously very, very special and very, very few people are ever honored in that way. It is my hope that it will forever stand on this campus to represent all the kids that wore that jersey and represented what our program stands for. And it is my hope that it will stand for all young people throughout this entire region who come from what I come from – I was a first-generation college student. I was the first person in my family to ever get a college degree. I came to Western Kentucky and put myself through school and became the first person in my family to ever get a college degree and I know what doors this place opened up to me.”