Washington announced its 2026 Husky Volleyball schedule on May 28, detailing both non-conference and Big Ten Conference matchups for the upcoming fall season. The campaign begins at home on August 28 against UC Irvine at Alaska Airlines Arena, followed by matches against San Diego State and IU Indianapolis to round out the opening weekend. An exhibition game against Montana State is scheduled for August 21 prior to the official start.
In the second week of play, Washington will participate in the inaugural Big Ten/SEC Challenge in Norman, Oklahoma, facing Ole Miss on September 3 and Oklahoma on September 4. The team returns home for matches against Lipscomb on September 10 and rivals Washington State on September 13 before concluding non-conference action with games against South Dakota State and South Dakota in Sioux Falls later that month.
Big Ten competition starts with away games at Michigan State on September 25 and Michigan on September 27. October features a mix of home and away contests, including visits from Illinois, Purdue, Rutgers, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Northwestern, and Nebraska—the latter returning after a previous sellout appearance in Seattle during their last visit in 2024. Road trips include stops at Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, as well as November visits to UCLA and USC before closing regular-season play at Oregon.
This year marks the first full Big Ten season with a complete round robin among all seventeen teams but without any home-and-away series due to the introduction of the first-ever Big Ten Tournament set for November 20-25 in Fishers, Indiana.
The Huskies return senior Katy Wessels and junior Julia Hunt as one of the conference’s top middle blocker duos. Simona Mateska enters her second year after earning All-Region honorable mention honors as a freshman. Head Coach Leslie Gabriel welcomes six freshmen recruits along with two transfer players this season.
Washington ranked fourteenth nationally in home attendance during the previous regular season—its twenty-first consecutive year finishing inside the top twenty.
