BYU Volleyball Schedule 2026

2026 Season Outlook

Seventh place is a real projection, not a slight. Arizona State, TCU, Kansas, Baylor, Colorado and Iowa State all rank ahead of BYU in the Big 12 preseason poll, and every one of them is a top-25 or receiving-votes team; the conference has gotten deeper fast. What BYU does have is experience in the spots that matter most under a new system. Alex Bower returns at setter with 1,265 assists last season, the second-highest total in BYU's 25-point rally-scoring era, plus eight double-doubles and All-Big 12 First Team honors - she led the team in digs in seven separate matches, which tells you how much of the floor she covers.

Brielle Kemavor was a unanimous selection to the Big 12 preseason team, one of the few players in the league to earn that, and Claire Little Chambers joins them after being the conference's Preseason Player of the Year a year ago. All three made the preseason team last season too, so this is a returning core rather than a rebuild. The wildcard is what Rob Neilson does with it: he inherits a roster built for someone else's system, and his first year will be judged more on whether the team looks coherent by November than on where it finishes.

Program History & Tradition

BYU joined the Big 12 in 2023 and has been one of the league's more consistent volleyball programs since. Heather Olmstead concluded her eleven-season tenure in December 2025 to pursue other opportunities; her final BYU team earned a No. 5 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, and her last recruiting class produced the Big 12 Freshman of the Year. Home matches are at the Smith Fieldhouse, opened in 1951 - small, old, on-campus and loud, the three things that make a volleyball venue hard to play in, with a student section close enough to the service line to be a genuine factor.

Head Coach Spotlight

Rob Neilson is in his first season, hired in December 2025. He played setter at BYU from 2003 to 2006 and was a member of the 2004 national championship team, then spent ten years on the BYU men's volleyball staff, helping the program to two conference titles and a national runner-up finish in 2013. He came to Provo after six seasons as head coach at Utah State, and brought assistants Chloe Hirst and Torre Glasker with him.

What to Watch in 2026

Pittsburgh, a 2025 Final Four team, visits the Smith Fieldhouse on September 4 in week two, and UCLA follows on September 11 - two blue-blood programs a week apart, both at home, which did the new coach no favors. The Holy War against Utah runs twice, now as a conference series: at the Huntsman Center on October 15, in the middle of BYU's hardest road stretch, and at home on October 30. Arizona State, the Big 12's preseason No. 1, comes to Provo on October 24 - the toughest opponent BYU hosts all year. The regular-season finale on November 27 is at home against TCU, the league's preseason No. 2.

BYUtv carries non-conference home matches free to air, a genuine advantage BYU fans have over most Big 12 fanbases.

BYU Volleyball 2026 Schedule Overview

Schedule and scores checked October 12, 2026 · Official source: byucougars.com

BYU opens the 2026 season on August 28 on the road at Florida Gulf Coast and closes November 27 at home against TCU: 28 matches, ten non-conference and 18 in the Big 12, plus an August 22 home exhibition against Utah Tech that does not count toward the record. The home opener is September 3 against Eastern Illinois, and Big 12 play opens September 25 against Baylor. This is Rob Neilson's first season, after Heather Olmstead concluded her eleven-season tenure in December 2025. BYU opens ranked No. 24 nationally and was picked seventh in a 15-team Big 12.

Home matches are at the Smith Fieldhouse. Full dates, times, venues and streaming details are below.