For WKU volleyball coach Travis Hudson, the first weekend of the season was the time to finally see everything on the court.

No preseason workouts. No scrimmages – actual game footage that can be used to gauge where his team stands. A 2-1 weekend in Lexington left Hudson with a mixed bag type of reaction.

“As we anticipated, week one was ugly,” Hudson said. “We played hard, (but) we’ve got a lot to learn. Probably almost every coach would have the same opening statement after week one. I’m excited to get back into the gym and fix some things this week going into another difficult environment at Michigan State this weekend.”

WKU picked up wins over Morehead State and Northern Kentucky before losing to Kentucky 3-1. Hudson said the Kentucky game was actually the most promising performance of the three games.

“As ironic as it seems, I felt better after we lost to Kentucky than after we won either of the other two matches,” Hudson said “This early in the year, there are things you are not ready to do, and this early in the year, things you have to do to be successful. We weren’t very good in those little things the first couple of matches, and then I think Kentucky probably brought out a different level of focus from us.

“Those scores do not reflect that match very well. We split those first two games. They put it to us the first set, and we put it to them the second set. They win that third, but the fourth set was 11-10. We’re 15 points away from getting to a fifth set against the No. 9 team in the country. I like a lot of things we did there, and I think there are things we can build on moving into week two.”

Among the surprises was the play of freshman Alivia Skidmore, a co-leader on the team with 32 kills overall in the three games.

“I thought all three of our freshmen played really, really well in their roles,” Hudson said. “Certainly, Alivia Skidmore had a fantastic weekend for us. Very steady. She’s just a steady kid in the way that she does things, and she keeps it simple. The term I use a lot is ‘paralysis by analysis.’ With young players, you get that a lot and that’s not her. She keeps it simple.”

Hudson said he was also impressed with the team’s physicality, while the offense was not quite where he would like it to be and was a big focus heading into this weekend.

Senior Kaylee Cox also totaled 32 kills, but finished with a .194 hitting percentage last weekend.

“I don’t think Kaylee would say she had a great weekend, (but) she still did a lot of things for us,” Hudson said. “Offensively, her numbers weren’t what she is accustomed to. Serving-wise, her numbers weren’t what she’s accustomed to. That’s just an adjustment period she is going to have to have. No matter how talented you are, it is different when that much responsibility is on your shoulders. She’s a smart kid and a really good player.”

WKU now heads to East Lansing, Michigan, for the Kathy Deboer Classic at Michigan State. The Hilltoppers open against Marist at 11 a.m. CDT Friday before facing Michigan State at 6 p.m. CDT Friday.

The weekend closes with a match against Loyola (Chicago) at 11:30 a.m. CDT Saturday.

Hudson said it should be a great weekend, with different levels of challenges.

“There are different levels of competition,” Hudson said. “Marist has struggled a little bit out of the gate. Then you have a Loyola team that has been an NCAA Tournament team for the last couple of years. They have a lot of turnover to their roster, but they look like they had a really competitive opening weekend – not in terms of wins and losses, but competitiveness.

“… Then you take a shot at Michigan State on their home court. It will be their Friday night match, their home opener. They will probably have 3-4,000 people in there. They had a great win over Colorado State, which is an incredibly hard place to win, and went point to point with Florida for a couple of sets. They are going to be a big challenge for us.”