PLNU VOLLEYBALL ENTERS 2026 WITH BEST EVER PRESEASON RANKING

(SAN DIEGO) Coming off a national semifinal run a season ago, PLNU Volleyball enters the 2026 campaign ranked No. 4 in the AVCA Coaches Poll, its best ever national preseason ranking in program history.

However, the Sea Lions are looking to compartmentalize and not let last year’s success impact its approach to the new season.

“I think something that I do well is compartmentalize,” Head Coach Jonathan Scott said. “It’s a day-to-day thing or a match-to-match thing, not letting the past too often affect the present, and that's certainly where we're at.

“Last year was awesome and we have a lot of the same players returning, but it was a completely different team. I'm sure there might be a little pressure here and there for some of them to feel the need to match up (to last year), but we don't really go there. We're just trying to be the best we can today.”

Scott’s emphasis to the group going into the new year has been to focus on everything between the beginning and end of the season.

“The thing we've focused on the most thus far is we're focusing on the B to the Y,” Scott said. “It's really easy to focus on letter A, what's right now at the beginning of the year, and it's really easy to think about letter Z at the end of the year. We’re trying to focus on the B to the Y.”

ROSTER

PLNU returns 12 players from last season, highlighted by All-American setter Sophia Baugh, a two-time First Team All-PacWest performer who ranks sixth in program history in assists.

“She puts up a really nice ball that's easy to hit,” Scott said of Baugh. “She plays with edge and plays with swag, which are the types of things that I want in a setter, where your team is better because she has that personality.”

Point Loma will hope to get two-time All-PacWest outside hitter Saren Rogers fully cleared from injury this season to lead the team’s attack, which will miss D2CCA NCAA Division II National Player of the Year Abigail Nua, who graduated from PLNU after a stellar Sea Lions’ career and signed to play professionally.

“We have a lot of good volleyball players and we're going to score the points, they're just going to come in different ways,” Scott said. “We have a lot of talent, just have to figure out what our best lineup is right now.”

Middle blocker Kyra Miles led the team in blocks last season while fellow middle blocker Hailey Clark was named to the All-West Regional Team. Libero Hailey Wilson and setter Jolyna Salas completed last year’s impressive freshmen quartet that earned significant playing time. 

“It's definitely one of the main reasons why I'm not nervous or comparing too much to last year, after losing somebody like Abi or losing the several starters that we lost,” Scott said of his returning group. “In our final run over our last six-to-eight weeks, we had four freshmen in the lineup, so that's a lot of really great experience that they stepped into.”

Defensively, junior libero Kira Federico and Wilson are expected to take on expanded roles after ranking among the team leaders in digs last season.

“They are really solid back row players on both serve receive and defense,” Scott said of Federico and Wilson. “We lose a really good lib in Macy Reynolds, but we have two really good returning libs who have already proven they can do it at a high level.”

Point Loma welcomes four new players to the team in graduate outside hitter Kaityln Cabral as well as three freshmen in middle blocker Gianna Callari, outside hitter Ila Rose and right side Emily Pruett.

“We have four new players and so far they’re just as much in the lineup as any returner,” Scott said. “Gianna and Isla have really established themselves as deserving to be out there. We’ll see what that means about the future but so far we’re really happy.”

The Sea Lions also get back senior outside hitter Mariah Hughes from injury as well as contributing returners in senior outside Ellie Nichols, junior middle blocker Finn Higginbotham, sophomore right side Adeline Daniel and sophomore defensive specialist Samantha Claus.

SCHEDULE

Point Loma opens its season with three matches in Ellensburg, Washington as part of the CWU Volleyball Invitational. PLNU plays No. 20 Western Washington on Thursday at 4 p.m. before taking on tournament hosts RV Central Washington (Friday, 6:30 p.m.) and No. 15 Simon Fraser (Aug. 29, 11 a.m.).

“With the way that the schedule worked out it’s a little bit more challenging but we're up for it,” Scott said. “Those are some pretty big regional matches. We’ve already had two five-set scrimmages against Division I teams, so it won’t feel like we’re rushing into it all of a sudden because we played pretty well.”

The Sea Lions will then return home for the Seaside Invitational (Sep. 3-5) with matchups against RV Dallas Baptist, Winona State and Colorado Christian before opening PacWest play at Biola (Sep. 8) and Westmont (Sep. 12).

In the middle of PLNU’s 18-match conference slate, the Sea Lions will host RV Cal Poly Pomona (Oct. 1) and play at No. 25 Cal State San Bernardino (Oct. 7).

“Pomona and San Bernardino are perennial regional opponents and are there almost every year,” Scott said. “Those are two non-conference teams that are probably going to be there at the end of November. You want to play the teams that you're going to end up needing to beat down the road.”

Point Loma, conference champions in two of the last three seasons, was picked No. 1 in the PacWest Preseason Poll.

“It's nice to have a double round robin schedule,” Scott said. “It’s in everyone's hands equally and that's the way it ought to be so we're excited for that. There are programs who return a lot and some brought in some pretty good transfers as well, so it's going to be a strong conference again. We’ll just see who settles in at the top.”

After the Sea Lions’ regular season finale on Nov. 7, the PacWest Tournament (Nov. 13-14) will feature the top four teams in the conference standings who will compete for an automatic berth into the NCAA West Regional (Nov. 19-21).

The West Regional champion will then advance to the NCAA Championships (Dec. 3-5) in Kansas City. 

For the team’s full schedule, click HERE.