Tops shine during preseason scrimmage, give back to community with youth clinic and ‘Volleyball 101’

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Over the weekend, Hilltopper volleyball fans packed the seats inside of Diddle Arena to get their first look at the 2025 WKU squad in the seventh annual Red & White Scrimmage.

While the team has been practicing twice a day over the summer to prepare for the fastly approaching season, Saturday gave them a chance to get work in with Hilltopper nation in attendance, which brought on a jolt of fresh energy.

As the fresh faces got their initial impression of the gameday feel, the returners saw a lot of positives from their play.

“ I mean, I feel like continuously every single day, they just get better and better and it’s really good to see,” senior libero Abby Schaefer said. “They have such raw talent, so young, and I just cannot wait to see even like, beyond my years here, what they’re going to be like. They just get better every day, and it’s so fun seeing young girls blossom in such a short time here.”

Following the scrimmage, the young fans in Diddle were able to get one-on-one work with the players on the team in a free youth clinic, which helped with building fundamental skills seen in the game.

While that took place, head coach Travis Hudson held a Q&A session with fans at ‘Volleyball 101’ where he discussed this year’s team and an assortment of other volleyball related points.

At the end of the day, both the players and Coach Hudson shared appreciation for being able to give back to the ones who cheer them on during the season.

“ That’s one thing I loved about coming here, I saw how involved they were with the community, whether it’s talking to fans after games or just doing these little clinics. I think it means the world to me that these little girls look up to us and we are able to give our word to them and encourage them to keep continuing to play,” sophomore outside hitter Faith Young said.

“I used to call us the best kept secret in Bowling Green, but I think the secret’s out, I think everybody knows we have a high level volleyball program here, and so now it’s just about educating as many people as we can,” Coach Hudson said. “If you come and you understand what high level volleyball looks like, you realize that we have some of the best volleyball in the country going on in Diddle Arena, you know, 12-15 times a year, so just trying to get that one more fan every single time we walk in here.”