2026 Big Ten Volleyball Media Day Preview
Aug 02 | Women's Volleyball
CHICAGO, Ill. – The fifth-annual Big Ten Volleyball Media Day is set for Monday, Aug. 3 as the nation's top volleyball conference comes together to preview the upcoming 2026 season.
Joining head coach Caitlin Schweihofer at this year's media day at the BTN studios are junior setter Lily Bolen and junior outside hitter Aspen Maxwell.
The Scarlet Knights will join host Rick Pizzo and analyst Elena Shkylar live on BTN at 5:05 p.m. (ET) and meet local and national media for a press conference on B1G+ at 6:20 p.m. (ET).
Big Ten volleyball has long represented the premier collection of programs in the sport, with current conference schools combining for 22 NCAA Division I Championships, including winning 12 of the last 20. Eight of the nine most-watched college volleyball matches of all time have featured Big Ten teams, and six different Big Ten regular-season matches last season earned an audience of more than 500,000 on three different networks.
ABOUT THE 2026 BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA DAY ATTENDEES
Head coach Caitlin Schweihofer enters her seventh season at Rutgers and will guide a roster of 11 returnees, three transfers and four freshmen, including the Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year and Nebraska Class A Player and Libero of the Year.
Last season, the Scarlet Knights achieved several notable milestones, including surpassing their win total from the previous season nine games into the year, fueled by a seven-match win streak, the longest for the squad since 2012, with sweeps in six of the seven games. Against Saint Francis (PA), RU swung .456, marking the best hitting percentage by the Scarlet Knights in a rally-era match. Altogether in nonconference action, Rutgers played to a 9-3 mark with seven sweeps and a 4-0 home mark. In Big Ten action, the Scarlet Knights set not only a school record for attendance, but the 8,000 to witness the Scarlet Knights take on No. 1 Nebraska at Jersey Mike's Arena marked the largest crowd to watch a volleyball match in the state of New Jersey. RU also picked up its first-ever Big Ten win over Ohio State, as the sweep marked the program's most since 2000 and the first time in either Big East or Big Ten play that the Scarlet Knights have held an opponent to under 20 in a match.
As the Rutgers starting setter last year, Lily Bolen led RU with 1,068 assists and 9.54 assists per set, the most by a Scarlet Knight since 2012. She also averaged 9.00 assists per set, marking the most by a Scarlet Knight in a Big Ten season. During the 2025 season, Bolen performed 11 double-doubles, the fourth most in a season in the rally era. She secured a career-high 55 assists, also the most in a five-set match in 2025, versus Ohio State (Nov. 9), captured 20 assists and 10 digs at No. 17 USC and posted a career-best three blocks against Maryland (Oct. 3) and UCLA (Nov. 15), a team receiving votes. Bolen is expected to continue moving up the career record at Rutgers entering the 2026 season third in rally-era career assists per set (6.66), fourth in rally-era career assists (1,351) and ninth in rally-era career aces (69).
In her first season "On The Banks" after transferring from Missouri, Aspen Maxwell led Rutgers with 378 kills, 3.38 kills per set, 83 blocks and 450.0 total points. Maxwell's 3.38 kills per set were the most by a Scarlet Knight since 2009, her 378 kills were the most by a Scarlet Knight since 2013 and her 450.0 points, thanks to 378 kills, 83 blocks and 28 aces, were the second most in a season by a Scarlet Knight in the rally era and three points shy of breaking the record. During the 2025 campaign, Maxwell led RU in 20 matches with double-figure digs in 20 contests, including a career-high 21 kills at Buffalo for the most in a five-set contest last season and 16 kills in a sweep of Dartmouth for the most kills in a three-set match last year. She was named the Sacred Heart Invite MVP after averaging 4.20 kills per set with a .363 hitting percentage, along with seven aces, 1.60 digs per set and eight blocks in wins over Dartmouth, Sacred Heart and LIU and was named to the Buffalo Invite All-Tournament Team after averaging 3.93 kills and adding nine blocks across 14 sets in matches with Marist, Liberty and Buffalo.
ABOUT THE 2026 SCHEDULE
The Rutgers volleyball schedule gets underway with Evansville, Purdue - Fort Wayne and host Bellarmine before traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, for the inaugural Big Ten/SEC Challenge, where RU will take on Arkansas and Vanderbilt.
RU makes its 2026 debut at Jersey Mike's Arena in a four-game homestand with LIU, Stony Brook, Delaware and Rider before closing out nonconference competition with Bryant, Penn and host St. John's.
The 17-date conference schedule will feature nine home dates, including contests with Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, USC, Michigan and UCLA, who all advanced to last year's NCAA Tournament. The top 15 teams in the regular-season standings will qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, being held November 20-25 at Fishers Event Center, home of Major League Volleyball's Indy Ignite
The 2026 schedule also features the return of the Big Ten | Discover Volleyball Challenge. Each Big Ten team will compete in five designated Challenge matches, with the winner determined by the highest win total across the five matches. A trophy is awarded to the winning team. Challenge contests will be all weekday matches in the month of October. Rutgers challenge opponents include Ohio State, Minnesota, Washington, Michigan State and Purdue.
Joining head coach Caitlin Schweihofer at this year's media day at the BTN studios are junior setter Lily Bolen and junior outside hitter Aspen Maxwell.
The Scarlet Knights will join host Rick Pizzo and analyst Elena Shkylar live on BTN at 5:05 p.m. (ET) and meet local and national media for a press conference on B1G+ at 6:20 p.m. (ET).
Big Ten volleyball has long represented the premier collection of programs in the sport, with current conference schools combining for 22 NCAA Division I Championships, including winning 12 of the last 20. Eight of the nine most-watched college volleyball matches of all time have featured Big Ten teams, and six different Big Ten regular-season matches last season earned an audience of more than 500,000 on three different networks.
ABOUT THE 2026 BIG TEN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA DAY ATTENDEES
Head coach Caitlin Schweihofer enters her seventh season at Rutgers and will guide a roster of 11 returnees, three transfers and four freshmen, including the Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year and Nebraska Class A Player and Libero of the Year.
Last season, the Scarlet Knights achieved several notable milestones, including surpassing their win total from the previous season nine games into the year, fueled by a seven-match win streak, the longest for the squad since 2012, with sweeps in six of the seven games. Against Saint Francis (PA), RU swung .456, marking the best hitting percentage by the Scarlet Knights in a rally-era match. Altogether in nonconference action, Rutgers played to a 9-3 mark with seven sweeps and a 4-0 home mark. In Big Ten action, the Scarlet Knights set not only a school record for attendance, but the 8,000 to witness the Scarlet Knights take on No. 1 Nebraska at Jersey Mike's Arena marked the largest crowd to watch a volleyball match in the state of New Jersey. RU also picked up its first-ever Big Ten win over Ohio State, as the sweep marked the program's most since 2000 and the first time in either Big East or Big Ten play that the Scarlet Knights have held an opponent to under 20 in a match.
As the Rutgers starting setter last year, Lily Bolen led RU with 1,068 assists and 9.54 assists per set, the most by a Scarlet Knight since 2012. She also averaged 9.00 assists per set, marking the most by a Scarlet Knight in a Big Ten season. During the 2025 season, Bolen performed 11 double-doubles, the fourth most in a season in the rally era. She secured a career-high 55 assists, also the most in a five-set match in 2025, versus Ohio State (Nov. 9), captured 20 assists and 10 digs at No. 17 USC and posted a career-best three blocks against Maryland (Oct. 3) and UCLA (Nov. 15), a team receiving votes. Bolen is expected to continue moving up the career record at Rutgers entering the 2026 season third in rally-era career assists per set (6.66), fourth in rally-era career assists (1,351) and ninth in rally-era career aces (69).
In her first season "On The Banks" after transferring from Missouri, Aspen Maxwell led Rutgers with 378 kills, 3.38 kills per set, 83 blocks and 450.0 total points. Maxwell's 3.38 kills per set were the most by a Scarlet Knight since 2009, her 378 kills were the most by a Scarlet Knight since 2013 and her 450.0 points, thanks to 378 kills, 83 blocks and 28 aces, were the second most in a season by a Scarlet Knight in the rally era and three points shy of breaking the record. During the 2025 campaign, Maxwell led RU in 20 matches with double-figure digs in 20 contests, including a career-high 21 kills at Buffalo for the most in a five-set contest last season and 16 kills in a sweep of Dartmouth for the most kills in a three-set match last year. She was named the Sacred Heart Invite MVP after averaging 4.20 kills per set with a .363 hitting percentage, along with seven aces, 1.60 digs per set and eight blocks in wins over Dartmouth, Sacred Heart and LIU and was named to the Buffalo Invite All-Tournament Team after averaging 3.93 kills and adding nine blocks across 14 sets in matches with Marist, Liberty and Buffalo.
ABOUT THE 2026 SCHEDULE
The Rutgers volleyball schedule gets underway with Evansville, Purdue - Fort Wayne and host Bellarmine before traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, for the inaugural Big Ten/SEC Challenge, where RU will take on Arkansas and Vanderbilt.
RU makes its 2026 debut at Jersey Mike's Arena in a four-game homestand with LIU, Stony Brook, Delaware and Rider before closing out nonconference competition with Bryant, Penn and host St. John's.
The 17-date conference schedule will feature nine home dates, including contests with Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, USC, Michigan and UCLA, who all advanced to last year's NCAA Tournament. The top 15 teams in the regular-season standings will qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, being held November 20-25 at Fishers Event Center, home of Major League Volleyball's Indy Ignite
The 2026 schedule also features the return of the Big Ten | Discover Volleyball Challenge. Each Big Ten team will compete in five designated Challenge matches, with the winner determined by the highest win total across the five matches. A trophy is awarded to the winning team. Challenge contests will be all weekday matches in the month of October. Rutgers challenge opponents include Ohio State, Minnesota, Washington, Michigan State and Purdue.
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