2026 Women's Volleyball
  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    The Aggies fall to Colorado State in Fort Collins in their 2026 opener 3-0 (25-21, 25-16,25-16).

    The Ags hung tough in the first set but were simply overpowered by the taller Rams in the final two sets. The kills were fairly even with the Rams having 32 and the Aggies 30 but the big difference was the 25 Aggie errors to the Rams 8. The Ags also had a tough time with the Rams' 6'7, senior, middle blocker who had 7 blocks.

    Colorado State finished 21-9 overall last season and finished second in the MWC. The Aggies won the Big West title last year and finished 21-7 overall.

    The Ags face Northern Colorado tomorrow and #11 Southern Methodist on Sunday.
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  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    The Ags pick up their first win of the season over Northern Colorado in 4 sets (20-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-18). Next up is powerful #11 Southern Methodist tomorrow.
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  • TrainingRm67
    218
    Getting any win on this road trip is a major accomplishment. At Colorado State - picked to win the Pac 12; at Northern Colorado - picked to win the Big Sky; playing #11 SMU on a neutral court. Tough opening 3 matches.
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  • TrainingRm67
    218
    This preseason the Aggies will also play 3 other teams picked to win their conferences: San Diego (WCC); Cal Poly (Big West) and Arizona State (Big 12). Plus 3 other P4 opponents - Cal, Oregon and USC.
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  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    ↪TrainingRm67
    We certainly won't have a "deer in the headlights" look once the MWC play begins!
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  • TrainingRm67
    218
    Aggies hanging with SMU! 2 sets apiece; going to a 5th set!
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  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    ↪TrainingRm67
    You can watch it on YouTube.

    #11 SMU took the first 2 sets and the Ags came back to take sets 3 & 4. It's currently tied at 4-4 in the 5th set.
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  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    11-9 Ags in the 5th set. Two straight service errors hurt us but we still have the lead.
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  • TrainingRm67
    218
    Currently at our cabin in MT - issues with internet at times. Especially with streaming. Just watch Live Stats. Anyway, don't want to jinx buy changing what we're doing. GO AGS!!
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  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    I got it wrong. The score is currently 11-10 SMU.
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  • TrainingRm67
    218
    Just went down 12-15 in 5th set. Heck of an effort. Didn't blink, didn't back down. Lots to build on.
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  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    ↪TrainingRm67
    I think I jinxed them.

    Great effort though! SMU is ranked #11 and is undefeated. Dan Connors is building a strong D1 program here and volleyball gets pretty good support from the Davis community. Quite a few SMU fans were commenting on YouTube that this was a "surprisingly difficult" game.
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  • TrainingRm67
    218
    After beating #10 Penn State earlier, I expect SMU to move up.
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  • Oldbanduhalum
    709
    I missed the game but surprised by the result. I watched some of Nebraska crush smu earlier this week in a non-ncaa sanctioned tournament held in the att stadium in Dallas (cowboys home). There are lots of quality programs out there and perhaps the Ags can continue to move up
    Oldbanduhalum Options
  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    The Aggies lost to San Diego State tonight 3-0 in their first home match of the season (28-26, 25-23, 25-19). The Ags had several set points in the first set and lost another close one in the second set. They are 1-3 on the season now.
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  • TrainingRm67
    218
    Aggies take down Cal Poly (RV) in 5 sets.! Come back from a set down. Four players with double- digit kills. Hopefully this gets the team over the mental hump against better teams.
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  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    ↪TrainingRm67
    Great win for the Ags. Poly was receiving votes in the national poll. The Ags have played tough competition to date and winning a tough game like this is just what the team needed. 5 sets (25-21, 18-25, 23-25, 25-23, 15-12).
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  • Oldbanduhalum
    709
    Ags take down #7 ASU 3-1. Maybe the biggest upset in all of volleyball this season!! Go Ags
    Oldbanduhalum Options
  • TrainingRm67
    218
    Great win! Go Ags!
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  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    ↪Oldbanduhalum
    I was watching some of this match on my laptop while watching the 49ers on the TV and the Ags were playing great. This was no fluke. They really set the tone of the match playing aggressively, smart and with confidence in front of a crowd of 2374. ASU was 5-1 with wins over #2 Texas and #14 Minnesota. Their only loss was to #20 USC.

    Tremendous win for the Aggies! 3-1 (25-19, 25-20, 22-25, 25-21).
    BlueGoldAg Options
  • eastbayaggie
    181
    I don't become a bandwagon fan of any UCD non-basketball or football teams unless if they have decent playoff hopes. Is this a team to watch this year? And why are they good if they are?
    eastbayaggie Options
  • DrMike
    1.3k
    I was just talking to someone in campus development about his conversation with Dan Conners. Comber’s was relating that SMU had a $650k NIL budget for volleyball. The fact that we’re competing (and besting) teams like that is amazing
    DrMike Options
  • eastbayaggie
    181
    So what's UCD's NIL budget? Zero?
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  • BlueGoldAg
    1.7k
    From ASU Athletics:

    Arizona State (5-2) suffered its third home loss in head coach JJ Van Niel four seasons against UC Davis (3-3).

    [quote]Head Coach JJ Van Niel

    Opening statement:

    “They (UC Davis) were on it and we couldn't get them on serve receive. They were consistent the whole night and they did a nice job offensively and we couldn't slow them down.”[/quote]

    On how special it is to see the fans back in Desert Financial Arena and the new renovations:

    “It's great. I saw it for the first time on Wednesday, it's great getting the renovation. We’ve got great fan support and it was loud in there. I’m just disappointed how we performed for our fans because we love them coming out, it's a big deal. We feel like we have a home court advantage, but tonight we didn't play that way.”

    https://thesundevils.com/news/2026/09/11/home-opener-sees-setback-for-7-volleyball?_gl=1*10qu1f0*_gcl_au*MTEyNDk4Mzg0Mi4xNzg5MDk3NzAw*_ga*NDY3NzkyNTM3LjE3ODkwOTc3MDA.*_ga_TEHJR60KD9*czE3ODkxNDMyNzIkbzIkZzEkdDE3ODkxNDMyNzIkajYwJGwwJGgxMzUwNzc1NjQ3
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  • Zander
    283
    ↪eastbayaggie
    I saw they were picked narrowly to finish second in MWC preseason poll (and second easily qualifies them for the conference tournament), so I'd say they're a relatively safe team to support this year. I'm not much of an expert on why they're good other than they were the only team to have two players on the preseason all conference first team, so it might be depth-related.
    Zander Options
  • Zander
    283
    ↪eastbayaggie
    I imagine it's not literally zero but close to it and not coming from admin. These kinds of athletes can get NIL money "as intended" through social media advertising, merch sales, outside employment, etc. Probably not amounting to more than a bit of pocket change and freebies here and there depending on how hard they promote
    Zander Options
  • eastbayaggie
    181
    ↪Zander


    Anyways, I've added the women's volleyball team as a team I'll avidly follow this year.
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  • eastbayaggie
    181
    I did watch the game last night, and apparently the team has some starting freshmen, and there were no transfers. This bodes will in the future assuming they don't leave for NIL.
    eastbayaggie Options
  • DrMike
    1.3k
    Getting $250,000 as runner-up of ‘spikes under the lights’ helps the old bottom line:

    https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/huskers-spikes-under-lights-champions-040751394.html
    DrMike Options
  • TrainingRm67
    218
    ↪eastbayaggie
    I know very little about the techniques of volleyball - it was one of the few sports I didn't coach while teaching. But Dan Connors is building a legit program.

    • Last year's team won the Big West regular season championship, and lost to Cal Poly in the Big West Tournament championship. Cal Poly finished last season anked 21st in the AVCA poll. The Aggies finished 21-7, 16-2 in conference (both losses to Cal Poly).

    • The Aggies have beaten UCLA (in Davis), Kansas State (neutral site) in 2024, and Cal (in Berkeley) in 2025.

    • Over the last 3 seasons, they've played tough on the road against Purdue, Indiana, Washington State, Washington, and especially this season taking current #8 SMU to 5 tough sets.

    • In each of the last 3 season, the Aggies have played progressively more challenging pre-season schedules. This season they will play, or have played current #7 Arizona State (W), #8 SMU ( L ), #16 USC (TBD), 324 Oregon (TBD), and RV Cal Poly (W). In addition, non-P4 opponents Colorado State (Pac12), Northern Colorado(Big Sky) and USD (WCC) were picked to win or be near the top of their respective conferences.

    There will be unexpected losses for sure. But I think it's clear that Connors is building the kind of program that we'd all like to support.
    TrainingRm67 Options
  • eastbayaggie
    181
    It looks like there's a game one hour from now. As per my policy if I can't watch it live, I'm not going to read this thread or any volleyball thread until I'm done watching the recorded game.
    eastbayaggie Options
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