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For media inquiries, please contact Caty Llamas at cathleen.llamas@wku.edu.
One name easily comes to mind when thinking of Western Kentucky University volleyball --Travis Hudson. Entering his 31st season as head coach in the 2025-26 school year, he is the architect behind turning WKU Volleyball into a championship-caliber team and bringing national attention to the Hilltopper program.
After taking over the helm in 1995 and finishing that campaign with a 7-26 overall record, a resurgence in WKU Volleyball came at an astounding pace. Under Hudson’s tutelage, WKU has earned 10 Sun Belt Conference Regular-Season Championships, including seven-straight from 2000-2006, and five Sun Belt Conference Tournament Championships. In the department’s first four seasons in Conference USA, Hudson guided the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 squads to four-straight regular season titles and sequential CUSA Championships before adding five more sets from 2019 through the 2023 campaign. Along with that, the Tops have appeared in 15 NCAA Tournaments, as 12 came from earning the league’s automatic bid and two were as at-large selections.
For his career, Hudson holds a 780-234 (.769) mark, as his only head coaching job has been on The Hill. Hudson has been named Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year five times (2000, 2002, 2005, 2012 and 2013) and Conference USA Coach of the Year four times (2015, 2016, 2019 and 2021) while being an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) National Coach of the Year finalist seven times after earning the South Region Coach of the Year award in 2002, 2005, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020-21. He has 25 winning seasons in his career, as he has 23 seasons with 20 or more wins as well as nine campaigns with 30 or more wins.
One of Hudson’s most recent honors came for the difference he’s made off the court. The 1994 WKU graduate was introduced as a member of the 29th induction class to Western Kentucky University’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni on Friday, October 9, 2020.Â
2024 was a season to remember as Hudson’s squad secured their 10th regular season championship and ninth tournament title after going a perfect 18-0 in conference play. Hudson also surpassed Ed Diddle as the winningest coach in Diddle Arena with his 760th career win on Sept. 27. After one of the tougher preseason schedules for the Hilltoppers, WKU Volleyball went on a tear in conference play. Over their 18-match span, 10 of those matches were three-set sweeps, and the Hilltoppers were pushed to five sets only three times throughout conference play. Along the way, Abby Schaefer earned her 1,000th career dig against Sam Houston on November 8. Callie Bauer earned her first CUSA Setter of the Year accolade while Kaylee Cox became the third-straight Hilltopper to win the CUSA Alyssa Cavanaugh Player of the Year award. Travis also earned his 18th overall Coach of the Year award and his seventh CUSA Coach of the Year award in 2024. Â
Hudson’s 29th season on the Hill was nothing short of spectacular as he guided the program to their 24th conseuctive 20-win season, the longest streak of any program in NCAA Division I. In addition to the historic streak, the Hilltoppers earned their eighth CUSA tournament championship with a 3-set win over Rice. That, coupled with their ninth regular-season championship, bookended their fifth season in a row without a single conference loss. During the 2023 campaign, Hudson notched his 750th career win in the match against UTEP on November 18 in Lynchburg, Virginia. Opening the season ranked 24th, the Hilltoppers would go on to upset then-ranked No. 12 Marquette and another unbeaten conference slate. On the court, Paige Briggs closed out her career on the Hill earning her third All-American accolade of her career and setting the single-game kills record with 35. Kaylee Cox earned her first All-Region nod of her career while Callie Bauer collected an All-Region honorable mention.
Even in a challenging preseason to the 2022 campaign, Hudson’s 28th season on The Hill still composed a 29-4 record, which included the program’s 1000th win and a fourth-straight NCAA Tournament Second Round appearance with an at-large bid to the Dance. After starting the 2022 season without starting libero Kelsey Brangers due to injury, true freshman Abby Schaefer took charge in the passing game all season long, along with redshirt-freshman Callie Bauer setting, new to the court. The Tops would gain their 15th championship since joining Conference USA, earning the regular season title in a battle against Rice to go undefeated in conference in the regular season. After opening the season at No. 21 in the AVCA Preseason Poll, WKU maintained status in the Top-25 all season long, reaching as high as No. 20, while rounding out the No. 23 spot in December. Closing a historic career, Lauren Matthews finished up her time in the Red and White earning the CUSA Alyssa Cavanugh Player of the Year award for the third time in her career, tabbed AVCA South Region Player of the Year, and AVCA Second Team All-American – the first Hilltopper with three team remarks. Matthews ended her time on The Hill as WKU’s all-time blocks leader and second all-time in kills. 2022 also saw senior Paige Briggs with another All-Region and All-American status, while embarking on her 1000th career kills and digs.Â
The 2021 campaign - Hudson's 27th at the helm - was another for the record books. Following the shortest offseason in program history due to the 2020 season being played in spring 2021, the Hilltoppers produced a 28-2 overall record with a third-straight NCAA Tournament Second Round appearance. The Tops secured their 13th and 14th championships of a possible 16 during their time in Conference USA, winning the East Division and Tournament once again. WKU spent two weeks ranked at No. 15 in the AVCA Coaches Poll - the best ranking in program history - and would close the season at No. 20 in the final poll. Lauren Matthews was named the first-ever Conference USA Alyssa Cavanaugh Player of the Year and doubled it up with the league's Defensive Player of the Year honor. Postseason awards rolled in with Matthews being tabbed the AVCA South Player of the Year and AVCA Third Team All-American after leading the nation in hitting percentage with a program-record mark of .480. The Hilltoppers' team mark of .341 ranked second in the country as well. WKU carried the biggest roster in program history with 18 players and would have six graduate following the season.
Season 26 on The Hill saw Hudson navigate the Tops to their best season yet despite an on-going global pandemic. Going 23-1 overall, WKU’s lone loss on the season came to the eventual national champions in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Red and White earned the No. 16 rank in the final AVCA poll, which tied the team’s best-ever ranking. Lauren Matthews (2nd Team) joined Alyssa Cavanaugh (3rd Team) as the only players in WKU Volleyball history to be recognized on one of the AVCA’s three All-American lists. Nadia Dieudonne earned Senior CLASS Award All-American status as well.
In his 25th season at the helm of the program, Hudson led the Lady Toppers to a 32-2 overall record which included a perfect 14-0 mark in Conference USA, the league's regular season and tournament titles, and the team's first-ever NCAA Tournament national seed at No. 15. Hudson and the Tops are one of just five programs in the nation to produce 20 or more consecutive 20-win seasons.
Hilltopper Nation showed up by the masses to support the Lady Toppers inside Diddle Arena with record-setting crowds on back-to-back nights for the NCAA Tournament. Thursday night, 4,514 were in attendance to watch the Tops win their fourth-ever NCAA Tournament match. One night later, 5,023 people came through the arena doors to watch the rematch between WKU and Louisville. While the Tops bowed out of the tournament, a statement was made that Diddle Arena was near the top of the list of volleyball atmospheres across the country. The two-day attendance of 9,537 ranked fourth of the 16 host sites behind only the three national attendance leaders across the NCAA Volleyball season, Nebraska, Hawai’i and Wisconsin. Friday night’s attendance alone topped the two-day total of eight of the other sites.Â
Hudson (Coach of the Year), Paige Briggs (Freshman of the Year) and Lauren Matthews (Player of the Year) each earned both the AVCA Region superlatives and Conference USA superlatives. Matthews also added AVCA Honorable Mention All-American honors and C-USA Tournament MVP status. Nadia Dieudonne collected C-USA Setter of the Year honors and AVCA All-Region recognition in her first year on The Hill.
After graduating five seniors - including two four-time All-Americans - Hudson was faced with a tall task during the 2018 campaign. The squad returned just two upperclassman front row players and only one that had seen significant court time. Despite an uphill battle to conquer, Coach Hudson led the squad to its 19th-straight 20-win season and secured the No. 2 seed in the C-USA Tournament for the second-consecutive season finishing with a 20-10 record. Individually, Rachel Anderson earned All-American honors for the third time of her career and was named a Senior CLASS Award candidate. Additionally, the senior collected Conference USA's coveted Jim Castañeda Postgraduate Scholarship.
On Oct. 21, 2018, Hudson secured his 600th career victory. Hudson joins an elite group of leaders to hit the milestone and is just the 19th active DI volleyball coach to achieve the feat. Hudson is the 58th DI volleyball coach all-time to win 600 or more matches in their career and is one of just 18 to do it all with the same team. Hudson is also the only coach in Conference USA history with 600 or more wins all at the DI level.
In his first four seasons with Conference USA, Hudson and the Hilltoppers set the standard high, as 18 Hilltoppers garnered All-Conference awards while Alyssa Cavanaugh (2014) and Rachel Anderson (2015) were both named the league's Freshman of the Year. Jessica Lucas was honored as the league's Setter of the Year in her final three seasons, 2015, 2016 and 2017, while Cavanaugh repeated as the league's Player of the Year. Upon the conclusion of the 2017-18 academic year, Cavanaugh earned Conference USA's Female Athlete of the Year honor.
With an experienced core, the 2017 WKU Volleyball squad continued finding new records to break. On Oct. 6, 2017, Hudson led the unit to its 30th-straight win over a C-USA opponent for the league record. That streak would stretch to 38 matches before a setback at North Texas. Speaking of streaks, the Lady Toppers continued their unprecedented home conference winning streak, stretching it to 55-consecutive wins dating back to the 2011 season.
WKU hit the ground running come postseason time in 2017, getting to play all five postseason matches in the Bluegrass State. Hosting the C-USA Tournament for the first time, the Red and White put on a show for the Diddle Arena crowd, as the squad clinched its fourth-straight trip to The Dance. The Lady Toppers would end up heading to Lexington, Ky., for the NCAA Tournament and sweep defensive-power Notre Dame. The next night, the Lady Toppers took a 2-0 lead on host and No. 6 Kentucky before the Wildcats fought back and ultimately claimed the five-set match.
For the seventh-consecutive season, the Lady Toppers found themselves ranked in the AVCA Coaches Poll, spending two weeks ranked and the remainder of the season receiving votes.
Jessica Lucas and Alyssa Cavanaugh were both named Senior CLASS Award candidates and when the field narrowed to 10, Lucas was named a Senior CLASS finalist. The senior ultimately won the fan vote and earned First Team All-American status from the prestigious organization. Fellow senior Sydney Engle joined Lucas as a C-USA All-Academic selection and later went on to be awarded the league's coveted Jim Castañeda Postgraduate Scholarship.
On the court in 2016, WKU strung together one of the nation's longest winning streaks at 21-straight matches en route to its third-consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. WKU finished the year with a 30-3 record in addition to two more league titles. Hudson was tabbed both the C-USA Coach of the Year as well as the AVCA South Region Coach of the Year.
The 2016 WKU squad proved to be one of the elite teams in the nation both on and off the court. After posting a cumulative team GPA of 3.61 for the 2016-17 school year to earn a spot on the AVCA Academic Honor Roll, WKU became the only Division I program to earn top-25 academic honors and finish in the top-25 (or receive votes) in the final AVCA Coaches Poll of the 2016 campaign.
Hudson led WKU to perhaps its best season in program history in 2015 as the Lady Toppers finished the season with a 32-4 overall record, including a statement victory at then fifth-ranked Wisconsin to open the season. He would go on to notch his 500th career victory a day later with a sweep of Colgate. After leading WKU to a 15-1 league record, Hudson earned his first Conference USA Coach of the Year honor.
Hudson and WKU finished the season on a high note as the Lady Toppers found postseason success after advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history with a sweep of Arizona.
Hudson closed out WKU's time in the Sun Belt Conference with a 215-59 record (.785), as the athletic department joined Conference USA as a full-time member in July 2014. His student-athletes earned 59 All-Sun Belt Conference selections, including 35 first-team honorees, as well as five selections for SBC Player of the Year, six for SBC Defensive Player of the Year, one for SBC Setter of the Year and four for SBC Freshman/Newcomer of the Year.
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The Lady Toppers are also recognized on a national scale, as WKU has ranked as high as No. 16 in the AVCA National Poll in 2013 and finished as No. 21 in the nation in 2012, the first time in program history that a team finished the season ranked. They repeated that feat in 2015 with a No. 22 final ranking. Along with that, Hudson's produced 31Â AVCA All-Region selections and 20Â AVCA All-Americans during his tenure, including four-time All-Americans Megan Argabright, Alyssa Cavanaugh, Jessica Lucas, and Lauren Matthews.
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But Hudson is not a man to rest on his accomplishments. To the contrary, he continues to ambitiously set new goals for his program and his players, pushing them to reach heights never before seen at WKU.
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In addition to his on-court successes, Hudson is fiercely proud of the achievements his players have produced in the classroom. He is a firm believer in living up to the term "student-athlete," and one can hardly argue with the results. The Lady Toppers boast a 100-percent graduation rate in Hudson's tenure, with nine of his players earning CoSIDA Academic All-District honors. In addition, Natalie Furry became the first WKU (and Sun Belt Conference) volleyball player to earn Verizon Academic All-America recognition, winning a spot on the third team in 2000.
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For the 17th-consecutive season, WKU Volleyball has been recognized as a recipient of the AVCA Team Academic Award for its work in the classroom throughout the 2020-21 school year. With a cumulative GPA of 3.619, the Lady Toppers have earned the Team Academic Award for the 19th time since 1999. WKU logged the second-best GPA in the nation (3.606) in 2000, and an equally impressive mark (3.56) in 2001. The Hilltoppers have also won or shared the WKU Female Scholar Team Award five times.
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The team was honored by the NCAA for having a multiyear Academic Progress Rate (APR) score in the top 10 percent nationally through the 2018-19 academic year, which marks the 14th-straight year the Hilltoppers ranked in the top 10 percent nationally. The APR provides a real-time look at a program's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance.
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In 2014, Heather Boyan and Rachel Engle became WKU's first C-USA All-Academic Team selections, voted to the 11-person list by the league's sports information directors. Engle repeated as a C-USA All-Academic honoree in 2015 while Jessica Lucas earned a spot on the team in 2016. In 2017, Sydney Engle and Lucas received the honor. Most recently, Sophia Cerino joined the ranks of Toppers to earn the honor in 2018 and 2019. Paige Briggs earned a spot on the C-USA All-Academic Team in both 2020-21 and 2021 and was joined by Katie Isenbarger during the 2021 campaign. The Tops saw the most of any school during the 2022 campaign on the C-USA All-Academic team as Paige Briggs, Katie Isenbarger, and Caliie Bauer were tabbed honorees.
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Hudson's student-athletes are also highly involved in the Bowling Green area, giving countless hours to community service efforts. In 2013, WKU volleyball had its first-ever Senior CLASS Award national finalist in Ashley Potts. The Louisville native was chosen as one of 10 volleyball players for the recognition based on criteria in classroom, competition, community service and character. Lucas went on to join Potts while becoming the first Hilltopper to earn First Team honors from the organization. During the 2020-21 season, Nadia Dieudonne joined the prestigious list of Hilltoppers.
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Two organizations the team shows great interest in is Hope for Harlie and the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation (FOJ), a charitable, non-profit organization that strives to enhance and strengthen the support system built around children with pediatric brain tumors. FOJ would forever change the lives of people involved with WKU volleyball, as the group connected the team with Harlie Bryant in 2012. Originally from Beaver Dam, Ky., Bryant was diagnosed with a brain tumor behind her eyes at a young age. Once FOJ connected Bryant with the volleyball team, Bryant was adopted as an official member of the squad, donning the No. 6 jersey ever since. The Lady Toppers now look to give back in any way possible to FOJ and Hope for Harlie.
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WKU's success on and off the court has been a labor of love for Hudson, dating back to his days as a student at WKU. Prior to assuming the head coaching duties for the Lady Toppers in 1995, he served as an assistant coach for two years with Mark Hardaway, who left The Hill to take the head coaching position at Evansville, and one campaign under Jeff Hulsmeyer, former head coach at Purdue. Hudson also served as WKU's interim head coach on two occasions, once after Hulsmeyer left for Arkansas State in 1991 and again in the spring of 1995 following the departure of Hardaway. Later that year, Hudson was named the head coach at WKU, making him (at the time) the youngest head coach in the nation at age 24.
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A featured clinician, Hudson has developed a reputation as one of the best coaches in the game. He has directed and staffed various volleyball camps both at the collegiate and high school levels throughout the region, including the WKU Volleyball Camp that he founded in the summer of 2000. He has also spent time as a member of the polling committee for AVCA Top 25 rankings.
In the summer of 2017, Hudson received a call from USA Volleyball, inviting the veteran head coach to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to help guide the USA Women’s Junior National Training Team (WJNTT). Hudson accepted and worked with the squad gearing up for the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women’s U20 World Championship.
Following the 2018-19 school year, Hudson worked with USA Volleyball for the second time. For a week in late June, Hudson traveled to Anaheim, Calif., to help coach the U.S. Women's Collegiate National Team.Â
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Hudson is the cousin of former Hilltopper basketball great Bob Daniels, who lettered for WKU from 1954-57. A graduate of nearby Edmonson County High School in Brownsville, Ky., Hudson captained both the varsity football and basketball teams, earning All-State honors in football. A 1994 graduate of WKU, Hudson holds a bachelor's degree in business management with a marketing emphasis. In 1996, he married the former Cindy Wiseman, a graduate of the University of Louisville's School of Allied Health with a degree in physical therapy. The couple has two sons, Tyler and Andrew.
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