SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The 2026 women's volleyball season gets underway on Friday, and for Santa Clara, there's only one goal – win.
The Broncos (17-12, 12-6 West Coast Conference in 2025) return 15 players from a 2025 roster that posted the program's first winning season in six years and finished fourth in the WCC. No less than 75% of the Broncos' numbers in every major statistical category are back for 2026, and with the addition of four newcomers, SCU has its eyes on reaching even higher.
THE GANG IS BACK
The Broncos' first starting lineup of the year Friday could boast as many as five all-conference award winners from a year ago. Santa Clara returns a whopping five all-WCC honorees from 2025. Setter
Macy Hinshaw and outside hitter
Cate Shanahan lead the pack after garnering first team honors last year. Defensive specialist/libero
Lexi Trapani is back after receiving a second team accolade, and both middle blocker
Grace Flanagan and opposite
Morgan Hayes return with honorable mention recognitions in their pockets.
Hinshaw (1,154 assists in 2025) and fellow setter
Hailey Newell help bring back 99.1% of the team's assists from a year ago. Trapani also contributes to that after logging 124 assists, second-most on the team. 94.8% of the team's service aces return, thanks in large part to the three-headed serving monster of Trapani (36 aces), defensive specialist/libero
Ashlynn Reilly (31) and outside hitter
Selin Aslayan (30). Shanahan added 21 aces of her own last season, Hinshaw contributed 16, and Flanagan had 10 – and they're all back.
The defense is back as well, with 97.1% of the team's digs returning and 75.6% of the team's total blocks. Trapani brings back her team-leading 450 digs, while Hinshaw's 299 and Shanahan's 202 also return. Flanagan has averaged 94.5 total blocks per year over the past two seasons while playing in every single one of SCU's matches. Hayes tallied 65 blocks, and both Hinshaw and Aslayan recored 31 stops at the net in 2025.
Finally, a trio of 200-plus kills players are back on the court for the Broncos this season. Shanahan tallied a team-high 372 terminations last year, while Hayes had 259 and Flanagan had 218 (and hit .313 while doing it). Aslayan was right behind them with 194.
FRESH FACES
The Broncos brought in four freshmen this fall. Middle blockers
Allison Dzieciuch and
Lauryn Coleman look to battle for the most playing time with Flanagan after the departure of all-WCC honoree
Layla Truitt. Outside hitter
Kaiya Kearney and opposite
Savannah Walker will also push Santa Clara's returning hitters.
The newcomers hail from all over the place, showing the Broncos' reach. Coleman comes to the South Bay from Seattle, Dzieciuch from San Diego, Kearny from Phoenix and Walker from Fort Wayne, Ind.
TOUGH SCHEDULE
Santa Clara intentionally laid out for itself a difficult schedule in 2026, hoping to elevate its chances for postseason play. The Broncos will spend the first two weeks of the season on the road in the Midwest and East Coast. Opening weekend features two NCAA Tournament teams (Eastern Illinois, Wright State) and a preseason conference favorite (Dayton). Week two features a trip to Connecticut for the Yale Invitational and a neutral-site match versus Hofstra, who went 22-4 a year ago.
The Broncos will finally return home in week three on Sept. 11-13 to host San Diego State, CSU Bakersfield and California in their own Mission Classic. Non-conference play wraps a week later on Sept. 17-18 with two more matches against 2025 NCAA Tournament teams in Cal Poly and preseason national No. 5 Stanford.
In all, the Broncos will face five NCAA Tourney teams from 2025, travel across the country and back, and kick off WCC play with seven of 11 matches on the road. But that also sets them up for comfort at the end of the season when the don't leave Northern California after Halloween.
The Broncos begin the season at 8 a.m. PDT Friday with a neutral-site match versus Eastern Illinois in Dayton, Ohio. Fans can find all live coverage links on SantaClaraBroncos.com.
