GUNNISON, Colo. (August 27, 2026) – The 48^th season of Lubbock Christian University volleyball serves as the first season for newly appointed head coach Tyler Neal, and the Lady Chaparrals open the 2026 season Friday at the Virginia Harris/Jeanie Miller Invitational hosted by Western Colorado inside Paul Wright Gym. The Lady Chaps play their opening four matches of the season in Colorado, with Friday matches against New Mexico Highlands (10 a.m. CT) and Sul Ross State (3 p.m. CT) before closing their Centennial State stay Saturday with Southwestern Oklahoma State (3 p.m. CT) and host Western Colorado (8 p.m. CT).
   

VIRGINIA HARRIS/JEANIE MILLER INVITATIONAL
OPPONENT	LOCATION	DAY	TIME (CT)	WATCH	STATS
NMHU	Gunnison, Colo.	Fri., Aug. 27	10:00 a.m.	Video	Stats
SRSU	Gunnison, Colo.	Fri., Aug. 27	3:00 p.m.	Video	Stats

      
LADY CHAP NOTES
- LCU enters the season projected third in the Lone Star Conference Preseason Poll. The Lady Chaps are coming off a 25–8 campaign in 2025, which included their first regular season title, as they shared the conference's top spot with Angelo State after a 15-2 conference record. The season ended with LCU's first-ever NCAA postseason appearance, as LCU went to Denver, Colo. And participated in the NCAA Div. II South Central Regional.

- Lubbock Christian returns 10 players from its 2025 Lone Star Conference championship and NCAA Tournament team, including AVCA All-America Honorable Mention setter Camdyn Sears. Sears, the reigning LSC Setter and Freshman of the Year, recorded 1,309 assists while directing an offense that led the LSC in assists and kills per set. Jade Workman returns after producing 226 kills, 102 assists and 62 blocks, while Camryn Blair contributed 140 kills. Tatum Fleitman added 38 kills in limited action. Overall, LCU's returners accounted for 1,460 of the team's 1,676 assists (87.1%) last season, although the Lady Chaps must replace four of their five leading kill producers from 2025
 
- LCU also brings back significant experience in the backcourt. Sears recorded 385 digs last season, while Ramsey Clark added 321 digs and a team-leading 29 service aces. Kyla Farnan finished with 134 digs and 16 aces, Sienna Cavalier collected 107 digs despite battling injuries, and Workman contributed 128 digs. The 10 returning Lady Chaps combined for 1,127 of LCU's 2,483 digs last season. At the net, Workman leads the returning group after registering 62 total blocks, while Sears had 29, Camryn Blair added 21 and Tatum Fleitman recorded eight. Clark enters 2026 with 665 career digs through her first three collegiate seasons.
 
- Seven newcomers join LCU in 2026, consisting of six freshmen and Hardin-Simmons transfer Leigh Jespersen. Jespersen brings two seasons of collegiate playing experience and earned First Team All-ASC honors in 2025 after leading Hardin-Simmons with 264 kills while adding 296 digs and 49 aces. The freshman class includes Chloe Crider, Kristyn Grantham, Lauren Hanson, Kayson Reeves, Shaylee Stevens and Haley Wheeler. Grantham led Arizona with 574 kills during her senior season, Hanson finished as Robert Vela High School's career assists leader with more than 2,000 assists, Crider helped Eaton win the 2025 Colorado Class 3A state title, and Reeves and Stevens each arrive with state-tournament experience. Neal said all six freshmen have a legitimate opportunity to compete for playing time immediately.
 
- LCU must replace substantial production from its 25-8 championship team, particularly at the pins and in the backcourt. Emilee Sikora led the Lady Chaps with 392 kills last season, Lily Bickley, an All-America selection, followed with 368 kills while hitting .325 and recording 100 total blocks, Payton Murray added 256 kills and Bryleigh Schweer finished with 219 kills, a .279 attack percentage and a team-high 105 total blocks. Those four accounted for 1,235 kills and represented four of LCU's five leading kill producers. Abby Dominguez leaves after leading LCU with 639 digs and averaging 5.07 digs per set, while Olivia Elofsson contributed 293 digs.
 
- LCU Volleyball enters 2026 with a coaching staff built on championship pedigree. Head coach Tyler Neal, named the program's eighth head coach in February 2026, brings over 20 years of experience highlighted by five TAPPS state titles at Trinity Christian School and a 1997 NCAA national championship as a player at Stanford. He inherits a program coming off its first LSC regular-season title and first NCAA postseason appearance. Joining him is assistant Levi Savage, a reunion of the duo who won four consecutive state championships together at Trinity Christian (2014–17). Savage brings his own championship résumé — a 2021 TAPPS 2A title at All Saints Episcopal and a No. 1 state ranking at Shallowater in 2025. His connection to LCU runs deep; his wife is a former Lady Chaps basketball national champion.
 
- Historically, LCU is 30–17 all-time in season openers and has won 12 of their last 18. They opened last season falling on the road 3-0 in Pittsburg, Kan. This year, LCU opens in Colorado for the second time since 2019 and the first time since opening the 2024 season in Pueblo, Colo. In 2019, Mandy Polk made her LCU coaching debut, as LCU opened their season in Golden, Colo.
 
- The Lady Chaps are making their first-ever venture to Gunnison, Colo. Paul Wright Gym is the highest elevated gym with competitive collegiate varsity athletic programs in North America. At over 7,700 feet, Western Colorado is the second-highest elevated university behind Colorado Mountain College (Leadville, Colo.), which does not have collegiate volleyball or basketball.
 
LOOKING AT NMHU
- LCU and NMHU will meet for a 20^th time all-time, but 17 of the meetings have been prior to 1998. The two teams last met Sept. 7, 2012 in Stephenville, Texas, where LCU won 3-0 to take a 14-5 all-time series lead. The two teams are meeting for a third straight time on neutral site floor, where the two teams are 3-3 against one-another. LCU has won the prior two meetings, with the Cowgirls last win coming back on Sept. 6, 1997 in Las Vegas, N.M.
 
- New Mexico Highlands enters the 2026 season picked 12th in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches' Poll with 52 points. Third-year head coach Meg Grose emphasized that the Cowgirls are focused more on their own expectations than the preseason projection after an offseason centered on continued program growth. NMHU is coming off a season in which it found success against in-state competition, defeating Eastern New Mexico and Western New Mexico while posting a 2-1 record against its New Mexico rivals.
 
- Highlands welcomes nine newcomers — four true freshmen and five transfers — as Grose looks to increase competition throughout the roster. The transfer group includes outside hitters Lea Süsoy and Ava Kincaid, middle blocker Savannah Boatwright, setter Camille Burton and outside hitter Duda Carvalho. Süsoy averaged 2.44 kills and 2.39 digs per set last season at Laramie County Community College and earned All-Region IX recognition in 2024, while Kincaid arrives from New Mexico Junior College after averaging 1.43 kills and 1.88 digs per set last season.
 
- The Cowgirls' 17-player roster features a blend of veterans and young talent. Seniors Becca Wiersema, Aziza Morris and Naya Dornic headline the returning experience, while Elise Fourt enters as a redshirt junior. Highlands also adds size at the net with 6-foot-2 Savannah Boatwright and returning 6-foot-2 Lenaea Carr. The freshman class includes setter Caitlin Hurley, libero Liviana Durham, middle blocker Hailyn Haskins and outside hitter Sophia Zimmerman. Hurley helped Salpointe Catholic to an Arizona state championship in 2025, while Durham recorded 433 digs during her senior season at Fort Collins High School.
 
- Friday's meeting with Lubbock Christian comes as part of New Mexico Highlands' season-opening trip to Gunnison, Colo., for the Virginia Harris/Jeanie Miller Invitational at Western Colorado. The tournament begins a 28-match regular-season schedule for the Cowgirls that includes eight tournament matches and four RMAC Power Pod contests. Following the opening weekend, Highlands returns to Las Vegas, N.M., to host the Meadow City Classic beginning Sept. 4, where the field includes Eastern New Mexico, Western New Mexico, Northwestern Oklahoma State and Southeastern Oklahoma State.
 
LOOKING AT SRSU
- The Lady Chaps and Lobos will square off for the 51st time, with Lubbock Christian holding a commanding 39–11 lead in the all-time series. Sul Ross State dominated the early years, winning nine of the first 10 meetings between 1979–81, before LCU flipped the script with a 17-match win streak from 1983–89. The Lobos' last victory came on Oct. 21, 1991, and since then the Lady Chaps have taken 20 straight matches, including a sweep in last year's meeting in Lubbock. The two programs share history as former conference foes in the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA) and later clashed in NAIA postseason play in 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1991. Like NMHU, LCU and SRSU have a long competitive history, but have only faced each other twice this century.
 
- Sul Ross State opens the 2026 season under first-year head coach Hollie King, who took over the program in March after two seasons as head coach at Wesleyan (Ga.). King also previously served as an assistant at Dallas Christian College and spent nearly a decade coaching at the club and K-12 levels in Texas. She inherits a program that went 3-21 overall and 1-16 in Lone Star Conference play last season. The Lobos were picked 18th in the 2026 LSC Preseason Poll with 74 points.
 
- Sul Ross features a 28-player roster that blends returning experience with a sizable group of newcomers. Among the returners are BreAnna Quarles, Jade Munoz, Hannah Garcia, Libby Foster, Novah Carrasco, Mia Espinoza, Clarissa Deleon, Emily Scott and Arianne Nieto. Quarles led the returning defensive group last season with 188 digs and a 3.36-per-set average, while Munoz averaged 4.00 assists per set. Carrasco is the top returning attacker statistically after recording 88 kills over 65 sets in 2025, while Foster added 36 kills in 36 sets.
 
- The Lobos supplemented their roster with several transfers, including 6-foot-1 middle blocker McKenzie Hart from Eastern New Mexico, outside hitter/opposite Anayah Sinclair from Western Texas College, middle blocker Brianna Galvan from Pasadena City College and sisters Nuri and Neeyah Stevenson from Post (Conn.). Hart was selected as Sul Ross State's representative on the LSC Preseason Offensive Players to Watch list. Freshman defensive specialist Crystal Espinoza was named to the league's Defensive Players to Watch list, while sophomore setter Violetta Flores represented the Lobos among the conference's setters to watch.
 
- Friday's meeting is a nonconference matchup despite both Lubbock Christian and Sul Ross State competing in the Lone Star Conference. The teams also met during LSC play last season, when LCU earned a three-set victory in Lubbock. Sul Ross finished 2025 with three victories, two of which came during its opening weekend against Western New Mexico and Eastern New Mexico. The Lobos later defeated Eastern New Mexico again for their lone LSC victory. Sul Ross now begins the King era in Gunnison looking to establish a new identity after last season's team averaged 9.60 kills, 8.88 assists and 16.10 digs per set.
 
LOOKING AT SWOSU
- LCU and SWOSU are meeting for the ninth time all time and the seventh time since 2016. The Lady Chaps have a 6-2 all-time series lead after ending a two-match losing skid with three straight wins, including a 3-2 win on Sept. 12, 2025 (last season). Five of the last six meetings have been in Lubbock. LCU is 2-0 against SWOSU in neutral site meetings, with each in Canyon, Texas (2005 and 2009, which were the first two meetings between the two programs).
 
- Southwestern Oklahoma State enters 2026 coming off a strong finish to last season, when the Bulldogs went 16-15 overall and 12-4 in Great American Conference play. SWOSU won nine of its final 11 matches and advanced to the GAC Tournament championship match as the No. 3 seed before falling to Oklahoma Baptist. That late-season surge helped set expectations for 2026, with the Bulldogs picked fourth in the GAC Preseason Coaches Poll with 94 points, just two behind defending regular-season champion Ouachita Baptist.
 
- Seven players return for SWOSU, including three All-GAC selections. Senior libero Jada Permenter earned honorable mention honors after leading the Bulldogs with 594 digs and 5.26 digs per set, while sophomore middle blocker Katja Blanchat earned second-team recognition after totaling 142 blocks and hitting .259. Setter Mackenzie Sims also earned honorable mention All-GAC honors after finishing with a team-high 611 assists. Sophomore Sydnee Winfrey (her sister Brylee won two NCAA DII national basketball championships at LCU) adds another proven presence at the net after recording 240 kills and 125 blocks as a freshman.
 
- SWOSU's strength last season came at the net, where the Bulldogs totaled 305.5 blocks and averaged 2.70 per set, the second-highest rate in NCAA Division II. Blanchat and Winfrey combined for 267 total blocks and return to anchor that front-row presence, while Permenter provides an experienced back-row leader. The Bulldogs held opponents to a .155 hitting percentage in 2025. SWOSU will, however, need to replace its top two attackers from last season, Hailey Smith and Paris Patterson, who combined for 649 kills. Smith has since joined the Bulldog coaching staff as an assistant.
 
- Head coach Josh Collins begins his 15th season leading SWOSU after guiding the program to four 20-win seasons, the 2015 GAC Tournament title and its first GAC regular-season championship in 2024. The Bulldogs open 2026 with 11 consecutive matches away from Weatherford, beginning with four matches in Gunnison. SWOSU faces host Western Colorado on Thursday, Sul Ross State on Friday and New Mexico Highlands before meeting Lubbock Christian on Saturday. The Bulldogs will not play their home opener until Sept. 15, when they host Oklahoma Baptist in a rematch of last season's GAC Tournament championship.
 
LOOKING AT WESTERN
- LCU and WCU have only met one prior time, which was a Sept. 7, 2013 meeting in Canyon, Texas, which resulted in a 3-0 LCU win.
 
- Western Colorado opens the season at home for the first time since 1999, hosting the Virginia Harris/Jeanie Miller Invitational at Paul Wright Gym. The Mountaineers begin Thursday against Southwestern Oklahoma State before facing New Mexico Highlands on Friday and Sul Ross State and Lubbock Christian on Saturday.
 
- Head coach Sonia Morales-Jones enters her second season leading Western after being hired April 1, 2025. She previously spent nine seasons at Benedictine Mesa, where she went 166-88, led the program to three NAIA national tournament appearances and produced seven winning seasons. Western is looking to take a step forward after finishing 1-25 overall and 0-14 in RMAC play last season. The Mountaineers were picked 13th in the 2026 RMAC Preseason Coaches Poll with 44 points, ahead of Black Hills State and Chadron State.
 
- Western brings back several key contributors from last season, including Kyra Kidd, Anuhea Ka'alele, Breanna Nohava, Emily Robins, Lauren Jacobson and Emily McMillan. Kidd is the top returning attacker after posting 142 kills while hitting .191 and leading the team with 66 total blocks. Nohava added 89 kills and 62 blocks, while Ka'alele contributed 97 kills and 343 assists. The Mountaineers will have to replace leading attacker Olive Rolseth, who paced the team with 228 kills last season, along with Liv Marshall, who finished with 188 kills.
 
- Western's roster features a mix of transfers and freshmen, including junior libero/defensive specialist Makaelah Paulino from UT Martin, junior outside hitter Andrea Torres from Grossmont College, senior outside hitter Sierra Long from Texas A&M International and junior setter Olivia Moore from Glendale Community College. The freshman class includes Kailee Padilla, Page Oothoudt, Maggie Legg, Mary Hamann and 6-foot-3 Karease Broeker, giving Western additional size at the net. The Mountaineers will look to improve on a 2025 offense that averaged 9.90 kills per set and hit .112 while opponents hit .250.
 
HOW TO WATCH
All matches in Gunnison can be viewed on the RMAC Network, which is a subscription service (not part of FloCollege and is not included in your FloCollege subscription) at www.RMACnetwork.com.