{"id":283324,"date":"2026-09-10T22:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283324\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T22:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:40:09","slug":"raiders-head-to-pittsburgh-to-compete-in-panther-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/283324\/","title":{"rendered":"Raiders head to Pittsburgh to compete in Panther Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAYTON \u2013 The Wright State volleyball program will hit the road for the first time in the 2026 season, traveling to the Steel City for the Panther Challenge hosted by Pitt. The Raiders will kick off the weekend against High Point on Friday afternoon, continue against Jacksonville on Saturday, and wrap up the weekend against the host Panthers on Sunday afternoon.
\n\u00a0
\nMATCH INFORMATION
\nFriday, September 11 \u2013 vs. High Point \u2013 4 p.m. – WATCH (ESPN+)<\/a> | FOLLOW LIVE STATS<\/a>
\nSaturday, September 12 \u2013 vs. Jacksonville\u2013 2 p.m. – WATCH (ESPN+)<\/a> | FOLLOW LIVE STATS<\/a>
\nSunday, September 13\u2013 Dayton \u2013 1 p.m. \u2013 WATCH (ACCNX)<\/a> | FOLLOW LIVE STATS<\/a>

\n\u00a0

\nKNOW THE FOES
\nHigh Point
\nThe Panthers enter the weekend at 3-2 on the season, with wins over UCONN, Lamar, and Liberty. Friday will mark the second all-time meeting between Wright State and High Point, with the Raiders leading the series 1-0. The lone meeting came at High Point in 2011 with the Raiders winning in straight sets.
\n\u00a0
\nJacksonville

\nThe Dolphins enter the weekend at 3-3 on the season with wins over Southern, Jacksonville State, and Florida A&M. Saturday will mark the third all-time meeting between Wright State and Jacksonville, a series the Raiders lead 2-1.
\n\u00a0
\nPitt
\nThe Panthers enter the weekend at a perfect 7-0 on the season with five wins over ranked opponents. Sunday will mark the eighth all-time meeting between Wright State and Pitt, a series the Raiders trail 7-0. Pitt came out on top when the two squads met in the Nutter Center last season, winning 3-1.
\n\u00a0
\nDEFENDING THE HORIZON
\nWright State was picked first in the Horizon League’s preseason poll, tallying 117 points. The Raiders have been selected at the top of the preseason poll in six of the last seven seasons dating back to the COVID-altered Spring 2021 campaign.
\n\u00a0
\nALL-LEAGUE RETURNEES
\nThe reigning Horizon League champions return four All-League award winners from a season ago, led by a pair of first-teamers in Lauren Yacobucci<\/a> and Reilly Zegunis<\/a>. Returning alongside Yacobucci and Zegunis are a pair of All-League Second Team selections in Mya Ayro<\/a> and Katie Sowko<\/a>. This marked the second-straight first-team honors for Yacobucci and Zegunis, while Sowko adds the second-team recognition to her All-Freshman nod from a season ago.
\n\u00a0
\nIN CASE YOU FORGOT\u2026
\nWright State finished 2025 with a 21-11 overall record en route to its fifth NCAA tournament appearance in the last seven seasons. The Raiders have five Horizon League regular season titles in that span, adding HL tournament titles to their resumes in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2025 for automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament, along with their 2019 at-large selection. The five NCAA appearances in the last seven seasons are the only tourney appearances in program history.
\n\u00a0
\nSIZING UP THE 2026 SQUAD
\nWright State welcomes four newcomers \u2013 including three freshmen \u2013 to this season’s roster. The Raiders’ 16-player roster includes three freshmen, five sophomores, three juniors, four seniors, and one graduate student.
\n\u00a0
\nUP NEXT
\nFollowing the Panther Challenge, the Raiders will head up to East Lansing, Michigan to compete in the Kathy DeBoer Invitational. Wright State will take on Drake Friday afternoon and the host Spartans on Saturday evening.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAYTON \u2013 The Wright State volleyball program will hit the road for the first time in the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-283324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}