{"id":445356,"date":"2026-08-27T18:46:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/445356\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T18:46:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T18:46:50","slug":"belmont-volleyball-opens-2026-season-at-wildcat-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/445356\/","title":{"rendered":"Belmont Volleyball Opens 2026 Season at Wildcat Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Story Links
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\n VB Match Notes 2026<\/a>
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\n ESPN+ at Weber State<\/a>
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Belmont vs. San Jose State\u00a0

\nFriday, Aug. 28 | 4 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Belmont vs. San Francisco\u00a0

\nSaturday, Aug. 29 | 12:30 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Belmont at Weber State\u00a0

\nSaturday, Aug. 29 | 8:30 p.m. CT\u00a0<\/p>\n

NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2013\u00a0The Belmont University volleyball team opens the 2026 season this weekend at the Wildcat Invitational, hosted by Weber State in Ogden, Utah.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bruins will face San Jose State on Friday, Aug. 28, before taking on San Francisco and tournament host Weber State in a doubleheader on Saturday, Aug. 29. Belmont opens the weekend against the Spartans at 4 p.m. Friday before facing the Dons at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The Bruins conclude the tournament against the host Wildcats at 8:30 p.m. CT Saturday evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Belmont’s matchup against Weber State will stream live on ESPN+, while live stats for all three matches will be available at GoBelmontBruins.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What’s Bruin\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\tBelmont finished the 2025 season 17-11 overall and 8-8 in Missouri Valley Conference play, finishing sixth in the MVC standings.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tThe Bruins’ season came to an end with a five-set loss to Drake in the first round of the MVC Tournament.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tBelmont is led by second-year head coach Fritz Rosenberg<\/a>, assistant coach Delaney Gallagher and newly hired assistant coach Sean Cahill<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tThe Bruins enter the 2026 season with a challenging schedule that includes eight opponents ranked among the Top 100.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tBelmont welcomes three newcomers to the roster, including junior DS\/libero Lauren Evans<\/a>, a transfer from Butler; sophomore Mya Bolton<\/a>, a transfer from Michigan State; and\u00a0freshman\u00a0Sydnee Nelson<\/a>, who joins the Bruins from Oshkosh, Wisconsin.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tThe Bruins return MVC All-Freshman Team selections Erin McMullen<\/a> and Jordan Czajkowski<\/a>, both of whom earned MVC Freshman of the Week honors during the 2025 season.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tCzajkowski appeared in 28 matches with 27 starts and led Belmont with 675 assists.\u00a0She recorded 30 or more assists in seven matches.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tMcMullen compiled 129 kills while averaging 1.48 kills per set and hitting .354. She also added 87 total blocks, averaging one block per set.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tBelmont was picked fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Poll,\u00a0tying\u00a0with UIC.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tThe Bruins have made four NCAA Tournament appearances (2006, 2008, 2012 and 2015) and twice pushed nationally ranked Louisville to four sets during tournament appearances in 2012 and 2015.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tProgram history includes signature wins over Mississippi State, Marquette, Virginia Tech, UCF, West Virginia, Boston College, Syracuse,\u00a0DePaul\u00a0and UConn.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

About the Spartans\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\tSan Jose\u00a0State finished the 2025 season 13-16 overall and 8-10 in Mountain West play, finishing seventh in the conference standings.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tThe Spartans return senior setter Fatimah Hall, who earned Honorable Mention All-Mountain West recognition in 2025.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tSan Jos\u00e9 State is led by head coach Todd Kress, who enters his fourth season with the Spartans. He owns a 33-31 record during his first three seasons.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tFriday’s matchup will mark the first meeting between Belmont and San Jose\u00a0State.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

About the Dons\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\tSan Francisco finished the 2025 season 5-13 overall and 7-21 in West Coast Conference play, finishing 10th in the WCC standings.\u00a0
\n\tSenior middle blocker Maeve Bailey returns after earning All-WCC Honorable Mention recognition.\u00a0
\n\tThe Dons are led by Diogo Silva, who has served as head coach since May 2021.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tThe matchup will mark the first meeting between Belmont and San Francisco.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

About the Wildcats\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n\tWeber State finished the 2025 season 18-12 overall and 9-7 in Big Sky play, finishing fifth in the conference standings.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tThe Wildcats’ season ended with a loss in the semifinals of the 2025 Big Sky Tournament.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tHead coach Jeremiah Larsen enters his 12th season leading Weber State.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tWeber State was picked fifth in the Big Sky Preseason\u00a0Coaches\u00a0Poll.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tSenior Rose Moore was named to the Big Sky Preseason All-Conference Team after earning First Team All-Big Sky honors last season.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tBelmont leads the all-time series 1-0, earning a 3-2 victory over Weber State on Sept. 4, 2010, at the Nevada Invitational in Reno. The victory also marked former Belmont head coach Deane Webb’s 300th career win.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Follow along\u00a0<\/p>\n

Follow Belmont volleyball on social media \u2014\u00a0@BelmontVB\u00a0on Twitter and\u00a0@belmontvball\u00a0on Instagram \u2014 for complete coverage of the Bruins. Stay up to date with all Belmont athletic programs via the official Belmont Bruins app, available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Story Links VB Match Notes 2026 ESPN+ at Weber…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-445356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}