HELLO!
We continue with our fall sports previewing here today. We’ve already done preseason picks for women’s soccer and men’s soccer the last two days, so if you have missed either of those, click those links and go check them out.
Today we’re turning our attention to Big East volleyball. We’re just a shade over three weeks before Marquette starts their 2026 season with a match at Fiserv Forum against Texas, so we’ve got to get preseason picks in before the league office beats us to the punch. Might
still be three weeks before we get there, but our full fledged season previewing for the Golden Eagles is going to start in just 10 days, so we’ve got to get moving. The full conference view of things is a great way to get started, and so off we go today!
I’m going to change the order up on how I usually do these things, but it’ll make sense eventually. Let’s start with the All-Big East team.
Preseason All-Big East Team
Ayden Ames, Creighton, MB
Abby Harrell, Villanova, OH
Macy Hatkevich, Xavier, S
Jaya Johnson, Creighton, OH
Campbell McKinnon, Villanova, MB
Rashanny Solano Smith, St. John’s, L
Kendall Timme, DePaul, OH
I didn’t have to do a lot of work to put this together. I stick to a format: Seven players, because there’s six on the court together plus a libero. There has to be a setter. There has to be at least two middles and at least two outside hitters. Thankfully, the 2025 Big East end of year awards provided me with six of the seven women here on the all-conference team. I got three hitters, a setter, a libero (who happened to be the 2025 Libero Of The Year), and one middle blocker out of the returning players from the 18 woman all-conference team. Yep, there’s only six of the 18 returning, which is really thinning out our picks for who the best player in the league is a bit, and that’s why I went with this item first.
(ASIDE: Again, I am asking the Big East to start doing a First Team and a Second Team. You had 10 unanimous picks for the all-conference team, we can all see who the coaches actually think are the best players in the league. Just roll with it.)
That left me with one spot to go, and based on how I put this together, it has to be a middle blocker. I was rummaging around in the stats, looking at who was in the league leaders in blocks last season and comparing that to rosters to make sure that they were middle blockers…. and then I realized. I saw “Ames helps USA win U21 Pan Am Cup” on Creighton’s site while checking their returning players. Ayden Ames averaged 1.54 kills and 1.00 blocks per set and hit .363 in two seasons for Texas, starting all 27 matches in a Sweet 16 season — that ended with a loss to Creighton, of all teams — and starting in 28 of 29 appearances in an Elite Eight run last season. Uh, yeah, I think she’s probably going to be really great as a junior transfer for the Bluejays. Let’s not over think this.
Preseason Player of the Year: Abby Harrell, Villanova
The top three setters by assists average are all out of the Big East after last season. The top three attackers by kills average are out of the Big East after last season. Based on available eligibility, this could be either Natalie Ring or Isabela Haggard, but they left Marquette for Texas A&M and Baylor respectively, while the other top two in both categories were seniors. And so, that leaves Abby Harrell left standing as the most obvious returning best player in the Big East for 2026.
To be clear, I’m not just settling for Harrell here. Remember in the ASIDE above where I said there were 10 unanimous choices for the all-conference team last November? Harrell was one of them, and she’s one of just two returning this fall. If the coaches agree that she was one of the 10 best players in the conference last season, and nearly everyone else around her cleared out after the end of last season, how is she not the best player in the league heading into the next campaign. By the way: The other returning unanimous choice? Harrell’s teammate, Campbell McKinnon, but I don’t think there’s a coinflip situation here. It’s the difference between Harrell’s 4.31 points per set and McKinnon’s 3.51, not to mention Harrell carrying Villanova’s offense with over 28% of their attacks last season.
Top Five Teams
1 — Creighton
2 — Villanova
3 — Xavier
4 — Marquette
5 — DePaul
I’ll pick against the Bluejays when they don’t win the league, major top end losses or not. It’s hard to say Nova’s not the best team chasing Creighton since they appear to have the two best returning players in the entire conference. Xavier loses two of their top three attackers from last season, but Macy Hatkevich is the best returning setter in the conference and head coach Christy Pfeffenberger has been punching out quality season after quality season in Cincinnati lately, so I’m going to trust her. While Marquette returns very little from last season, Tom Mendoza coached a team he didn’t recruit into the NCAA tournament a year ago, so I’ll give him the (blue and gold glasses-tinted) benefit of the doubt and pick the Golden Eagles to make the conference tournament at the very least here. DePaul finished one game behind UConn for fifth place last season, and they have Kendall Timme back for her sophomore season, so advantage Blue Demons.
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