Greenville, SC – Emmanuel University, 2025 Conference Carolinas Women's Volleyball Championship champion, was picked to repeat in the 2026 Conference Carolinas Women's Volleyball Preseason Poll.
2025 Conference Carolinas Women's Volleyball Championship champion and 2024 runner-up and, Emmanuel received 10 first place votes and 216 points to sit atop the 2026 preseason poll. The Lions have won the Southwest Division each of the last two years and won the tournament title in 2023.
The Lions are followed closely by 2025 East Division champion, Francis Marion University, who received the final six first place votes and 215 points. UNC Pembroke comes in third with 181 points, narrowly ahead of 2025 tournament runner-up North Greenville University's 180 points. 2025 Northwest Division champion, Converse University, rounded out the top five with 174 points.
Shorter University is picked sixth with 148 points, the University of Mount Olive' is picked seventh with 139 points while Southern Wesleyan University comes in eighth with 122. Lees-McRae College and Belmont Abbey College round out the top 10 with 120 and 98 points, respectively.
King University (89), Barton College (73), Young Harris College (67), Erskine College (48), Chowan University (34) and Ferrum College (16) finished the poll.
Southern Wesleyan went 15-13 overall in the 2025 season and were 11-9 in Conference Carolinas play. They picked up several key wins including wins against Young Harris, Mount Olive and Emmanuel to allow them to advance to the Conference Carolinas tournament. In the first round, they took down the Belmont Abbey Crusaders 3-2 to allow them to play just hours later against the Lees-McRae Bobcats. A reverse sweep over the Bobcats allowed the Warriors to advance to the semi-finals. However, they fell to the North Greenville Trailblazers in a 3-2 final to conclude their season.
The Warriors will return their top four attack players in Kaylon Chapman (285 kills), Ainsley Stovall (194 kills), Briley Wolff (165 kills) and Michaela Andress (146 kills). Setter Amiyah Spann looks to return after she picked up 431 assists last season. Defensively, the Warriors will look to Wolff, Sarah Mitchell and Megan Gilliland to block the attacks of their opponents. Wolff led the team with 78 blocks last season with Mitchell (70 blocks) and Gilliland (34 blocks) right behind her.
Southern Wesleyan will open up the 2026 campaign at the Bobcat Classic in Milledgeville, GA where they will take on Carson-Newman, Georgia College, Albany State and West Alabama over the span of two days. They will then open up Conference Carolinas at home as they host the Erskine College Flying Fleet on September 9 at 6pm.
The 2026 Conference Carolinas Women's Volleyball Championship is scheduled to start with the first round on November 6 or 7 with the quarterfinals to follow on November 10 or 11. The semifinals and final will be competed at the Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court at UNC Pembroke in Pembroke, North Carolina on November 14-15.
The preseason poll was voted on by the league's head coaches and they can't vote for their own school.
