Westlake Chaparrals outside hitter Geralynn Byers-Veal (24) goes for the kill shot against the Vandegrift Vipers during the first set at the nondistrict volleyball game on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, at Westlake High School in West Lake Hills, TX.
John Gutierrez Photo/John Gutierrez for Austin American Statesman
The 2026 high school volleyball season begins this week in Central Texas and around the state with several Austin-area teams hoping to find the success that 2025 state finalists Austin High, Cedar Park and Wimberley did. This year’s Texas Girls Coaches Association’s preseason top-10 polls include nine area schools ranked: Westlake, Lake Travis and Johnson in Class 6A, Weiss, Anderson and Georgetown in Class 5A, Wimberley in Class 4A, Thrall in Class 3A and Thorndale in Class 2A.
Four highly regarded Austin-area tournaments kick off the season, with the AISD Jason Landers Memorial, the Leander-Georgetown Tournament, the Wimberley Texfest and the Westwood Warrior Showcase beginning Thursday while some Central Texas schools will head to the Houston area for tournaments hosted by Pearland and Katy-Cypress ISD.
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2025-26 BREAZEALE CUP: How did 4A Wimberley top 6A Westlake as our top sports program? Consistency.
Here are the area’s top storylines heading into the 2026 season:
Gentry Barker with a return for Lake Travis. Lake Travis won a non-district volleyball match at Round Rock in three sets on August 12th, 2025.
Henry Huey @HenryHueyPhoto
Who’s the best of the best in Central Texas?
Traditional volleyball powers Westlake, Lake Travis, Wimberley and Dripping Springs are loaded with new and returning talent. Cedar Park, which won last year’s Class 5A Division II state championship, and Class 6A DI runner-up Austin High had huge losses to graduation and this February’s UIL realignment has put a new spin on this season.
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RELATED: A look back at our 2025 All-Central Texas Volleyball Team. Who’s back this year?
But despite graduating a trove of players who are now at premier college volleyball powers — including Texas’ Henley Anderson (Dripping Springs), Stanford’s Joy Udoye (Cedar Park) and USC’s Riley Malloy (Austin High) — area programs should again be strong. Austin High took a hit, however, when standout middle blocker Camille Presley graduated early and reclassified from the Class of 2027 to the Class of 2026 to join the Texas Longhorns rather than play her final year with the Maroons.
Central Texas has produced several recent state champions, including Dripping Springs, Cedar Park, Wimberley and TAPPS power Round Rock Christian as well as multiple qualifiers to the state tournament’s final four.
A foursome to watch
Central Texas boasts one of the best group of sophomores in at least the past decade in Westlake’s Geralynn Byers-Veal, Weiss setter Ava Davenport, Round Rock’s Isa Cordaway-Dreier and Wimberley’s Trinity Laney. Byers-Veal was the American-Statesman’s Central Texas newcomer of the year as a freshman, Davenport compares well to former three-time All-Central Texas player Takyla Brown (Davenport’s cousin), Cordaway-Dreier was her district’s defensive MVP and Laney, an outside hittter, made the Class 4A all-state tournament team.
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It’s brother vs brother in District 26-6A
UIL realignment has paired Dripping Springs and Johnson in District 26-6A for at least the next two years. That means the district’s volleyball spotlight will shine on Tigers coach Michael Kane, who has won more than 800 career victories and led Dripping Springs to the 2022 state title, and his brother Thomas Kane, who now leads the Jaguars after years at Wimberley.
Dripping Springs and Johnson meet twice in district play, Sept. 8 and Oct. 1. Their matchups are known as the Kane Cup.
Other things to watch
• Area powers Lake Travis (Rachel Anglin) and Cedar Park (John Henze) have new coaches this year.
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• Realignment wasn’t so kind to Cedar Park, Leander, Rouse and East View, all of whom were moved up to Class 6A.
• Three teams poised to have their best seasons in several years: Bowie, Hutto and LASA.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified Wimberley player Trinity Laney.
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