We got some big Marquette volleyball schedule news on Monday afternoon as the AVCA announced an addition to their 2026 First Serve event. In the process of adding a fourth day to the First Serve event that was already set for Fiserv Forum, the AVCA announced that there will be two Big East-themed matches in a doubleheader on Monday, August 24th. One of the contests will be Xavier taking on Pittsburgh, but the other one will be YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles going up against the Texas Longhorns!
Real
quick, here’s the timeline of how this went:
December 19, 2025: AVCA announces Fiserv Forum as the home for the 2026 First Serve event after going to San Antonio in 2024 and both Lincoln, Nebraska and Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 2025.
January 16, 2026: AVCA announces Arizona State, Louisville, SMU, Texas and the 2025 NCAA tournament Final Four teams — Texas A&M, Kentucky, Pittsburgh, and Wisconsin — as the participants in the 2026 season kickoff event.
January 26, 2026: AVCA announces the matchups for the three days of doubleheaders from August 21 through August 23.
Now: They add Marquette and Xavier to give both the Longhorns and the Panthers a second match in the event.
Would you like to have seen Marquette get into the competition out of the gate seeing as they’re right there in town? Sure, but ultimately, it’s worked out to get the Golden Eagles a high profile contest to start off Tom Mendoza’s second season in charge of the program, so all’s well that ends well.
Here’s why they’re adding a pair of Big East contests to the event after originally only announcing a three-day festival of volleyball:
“The addition of the BIG EAST Challenge is a strategic step in continuing to elevate AVCA First Serve as the premier opening weekend event in collegiate volleyball,” said AVCA CEO Dr. Jaime Gordon. “The BIG EAST has a long-standing tradition of competitive excellence in our sport, and this format allows us to showcase that strength on a national stage while bringing more high-level matchups to Milwaukee. Expanding to a fourth day gives us the flexibility to involve other elite programs and create an even more compelling start to the season for fans, student-athletes, and the sport, as a whole.”
Tickets are already on sale for the first three days of the event, including a three-day package. I would imagine that there would soon be a four-day package available, but keep your eyes and ears open for that in the future.
What can we expect from the Longhorns in the first ever regular season meeting after clashing with them in the Sweet 16 of the 2022 NCAA tournament? Well, let me drop in this paragraph from the end of the UT press release on adding this match to their opening weekend:
Last season, Texas advanced to the NCAA Regional Final for the 18th time in 20 seasons. The Longhorns finished 26-4 overall, including 12 wins against ranked opponents, highlighted by a starting stretch of 18 consecutive victories.
18 Elite Eights in 20 years. Okay, message received, Texas.
If the Longhorns are on par to what they’ve been for the past two decades, this is probably going to be a tough test for Marquette to start the season. Not just because they’re likely to start the season in the top 10 of the AVCA top 25 poll after wrapping up 2025 at #6, but because head coach Tom Mendoza is drastically resetting his Marquette roster after his first season in charge. Top attacker Natalie Ring transferred to Texas A&M, while Big East Co-Freshman of the Year and starting setter Isabela Haggard moved on to Baylor and regular starter Mari King ended up at Oklahoma. Combine that with the eligibility related departures of Hattie Bray, Elena Radeff, and Adriana Studer, and Mendoza is essentially starting from scratch in 2026. Given that he was coaching a squad that he essentially didn’t have any hand in recruiting in 2025, I’m not going to discount his ability to wrangle the team in to the NCAA tournament…. but clipping a preseason top 10 team in Match #1 of the season miiiiiight be a tall order.
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