You know what would be really fun? If the Big East would realize that two of their teams are starting the season on Monday, August 24, and publish the preseason coaches poll at some point before when I am writing this preview, which is early on Thursday, August 20th. They can publish it whenever they want, but it’s really starting to seem like they’re treating August 28th like the actual start to the season. Some of us would like to use the preseason poll as part of the discussion in previewing the first
match of the season, but the Big East office is making that incredibly difficult. All I’m saying is that the AVCA First Serve event officially starts on the 21st, and it’s probably a good idea to put your preseason poll out before there are games that count up on the board, that’s all.
Just watch: They’re going to publish this thing at about 11:30am on Thursday and really mess with my entire deal here.
ANYWAY
One of two things is going to happen on Monday night at Fiserv Forum. ITEM THE FIRST: Marquette volleyball starts off head coach Tom Mendoza’s second season in charge with an incredible upset victory that sets the tone for the entire 2026 campaign. ITEM THE SECOND: The Golden Eagles lose to the #2 ranked team in the country.
Win or lose, it’s a tremendous opportunity for Marquette for multiple reasons. The first is the obvious “beat Texas and signal to everyone that you’re a big deal” reason. Underneath that, there’s the part where this Golden Eagles team that’s relying on having at least some of their eight freshmen make big contributions this season is going to get to see “hey, that’s what it looks like to be a great volleyball team.” There’s also the part where Marquette is going to play two more teams ranked in the preseason top 10 during non-conference action, and going straight into the fire is going to help them when it’s time to play Stanford (September 6th) and Wisconsin (September 17th). It’s also going to help when MU faces Dayton just four days after the Texas contest and it’ll be of use for Marquette’s home-and-home weekend set against Illinois., too. Both the Flyers and the Illini are earning preseason top 25 votes, just like Marquette is, and those three matches will be critical in figuring out if the Golden Eagles have a pathway to an NCAA tournament bid this December.
By the way: We do have an idea as to what the lineup is going to look like after MU played an exhibition match against Green Bay on August 19th and the Phoenix made the live stats public. Carson Tyler was Marquette’s leading attacker with 41 swings, and she hit .317 in the 3-0 victory against UWGB. Luanna Markus led in assists with 29, and no one else had more than 3, so she wasn’t in a rotation here. Emi Juric ended up with 26 digs, so it certainly looks like she’ll be the libero. There’s still a question to be asked about middle blockers, as Keira Schmidt did not play here. She had a walking boot on at the Blue & Gold Scrimmage on August 8th, and no, it’s not encouraging that she was out of the lineup here, 11 days later. If that’s more preventative than anything else, no reason to put her out there in an exhibition, etc., etc., then that’s fine…. but if Schmidt is missing time long term, that’s going to make it harder for the Golden Eagles without their most experienced returning player. With that said, Julia Stanev had four assisted blocks, and I will sign up for a 1.33/set average from anyone on this roster right now. Caydence Doolan missed the scrimmage entirely (as far as I could tell) but she got on the floor against Green Bay, so that’s a good sign for MU’s overall depth this season.
Match #1: vs #2 Texas Longhorns (0-0)
Date: Monday, August 24, 2026
Time: 7pm Central, probably. It’s the second game of a doubleheader, so there’s a chance Pitt/Xavier (which is also on FS2!) goes longer than 2 hours.
Location: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Television: FS2
Streaming: FoxSports.com/live or the Fox Sports app
Live Stats: Nothing as far as I can see, at least this far in advance…..
Marquette is 0-1 all time against Texas. The only meeting in series history came as part of the 2022 NCAA tournament when the Longhorns beat the Golden Eagles 3-1 in the Sweet 16 of the 2022 NCAA tournament. Texas was the #1 seed in the region so they were hosting this match AND they were the #1 team in the country at the time AND it marked just the 12th time that UT had lost a set all season and just the fourth time at home.
Would you believe that the SEC published their volleyball preseason pollbefore we even got to the month of August? It’s true! The press release is dated July 29th! What a wild idea!
In any case, the SEC coaches voted Texas in the exact same place as the AVCA voters: Second. The catch here is that the Longhorns found themselves trailing Kentucky in the league instead of Nebraska as is the case with the national top 25. The Wildcats picked up nine votes to Texas’ six, and that was enough to generate a two point difference, 218 to 216, and place those two in those two positions. Because you’re wondering: Kentucky is #3 in the AVCA poll, but got four first place votes to just one for Texas.
There are two Longhorns on the 15 woman preseason all-SEC team. The pair in question were Texas’ top two attackers last season, so no real surprise there. Torrey Stafford is the primary name to know, as she led the team with 4.69 kills per set. She had more than 1,100 swings by the end of UT’s 30 matches a year ago while no one else had more than 800, but don’t think she’s getting those kills by pure volume. Stafford hit .360 as a junior last season, which is just a terrifying thing to consider. Cari Spears was just a freshman a year ago, but she was the first Longhorn to ever earn All-Conference First Team and All-Freshman team honors in the same season. She was second on the roster behind Stafford in kills at 3.25/set, and her .295 hitting percentage would be very impressive if it didn’t have to sit behind Stafford’s .360 on the stat sheet.
Ella Swindle returns as the starting setter after averaging 8.93 assists/set last season, and Rella Binney, Swindle’s rotation mate, returns as well. Texas will be replacing senior libero Emma Halter, who averaged 3.60 digs/set last season, but given what the Horns are returning, I imagine that head coach Jerritt Elliott can figure that part out easily enough.
By the way: I’m publishing this before Texas opens their season on August 22nd with an AVCA First Serve match against #12 Arizona State. That’s how timing works unfortunately, so we’ll know a lot more about Texas after they’re done with the Sun Devils, but I wasn’t waiting until Sunday to write this preview, either. That match is at 6pm Central time on FS1 if you’re so inclined to get an early look at the Longhorns.
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