TicketsCINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati volleyball team has begun preparations for the 2026 season, bringing back key contributors from a Big 12 Tournament-caliber roster while adding a talented mix of freshmen and impact transfers.
The Bearcats are set to open the season with two exhibition matches. Cincinnati hosts Wright State on Saturday, Aug. 15, at 1 p.m., followed by Tennessee in its Tribute to #10 game on Aug. 22 at 1 p.m.
UC will then officially open the 2026 season on the road with back-to-back matchups against Illinois on Friday, Aug. 28, at 8 p.m. and Syracuse on Saturday, Aug. 29 (time TBD). Both matches will be played in Champaign, Ill., inside Huff Hall.
Cincinnati will then return to Fifth Third Arena for its home opener against Santa Clara on Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets to all home matches at Fifth Third Arena can be purchased HERE. All matches will be streamed nationally on ESPN+.
The Bearcats return nine athletes from last season, including three key starters.
Senior outside hitter Sydney Nolan headlines the returning group after a First-Team All-Big 12 and AVCA All-Region campaign in 2025, in which she averaged a team-best 4.68 kills per set on a .305 hitting percentage across 26 matches (100 sets). Nolan posted 11 matches of 20-plus kills, set a school record with 75 attacks in a four-set match against Arizona and delivered a standout .481 hitting performance (25 kills, 52 attempts, zero errors) against No. 19 BYU. Nationally, she finished 12th in kills per set, 15th in attacks per set, 17th in points per set and 25th in total kills, while ranking among the Big 12's best across every major offensive category.
Setter Andi Spies returns as UC's top assist getter, averaging 9.44 assists per set with nine double-doubles and 40-plus assists in eight matches last season.
Middle blocker Tatjana Simeunovic returns as the team's top shot blocker, averaging 1.09 blocks per set with 10 matches of five-plus blocks, including a career-best 10 rejections against Texas Tech on Nov. 14.
The Bearcats have also bolstered their roster with three impact transfers ahead of 2026.
Fifth-year middle blocker Audrey Rome arrives from UConn, where she started every match in 2025, led the Huskies with 89 blocks and added 236 kills, earning two BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week honors and a Bearcat Classic All-Tournament MVP nod.
Junior setter Kate Lijic joins from Miami with an international pedigree, having earned Best Setter honors at three Croatian national championship levels and represented Croatia across six national team tiers.
Junior outside hitter Andrea Simovski, the 2025 Mountain West Tournament MVP, transfers in from Utah State after racking up 328 kills and 260 digs while helping the Aggies to an undefeated 18-0 conference title, a 22-match winning streak and an NCAA Tournament first-round upset of No. 7 Tennessee.
Cincinnati's 2026 class also includes six talented freshmen.
Middle blocker Julia Horan, a 6-foot-2 signee from Fairfax, Va., guided Chantilly High School to district and regional titles and a state runner-up finish, totaling 132 kills and 84 blocks as a junior.
Opposite Nina Scrucca, a 6-foot standout from Neuchâtel, Switzerland, brings professional experience from League A's Vitéos NUC, where she earned League A MVP honors and won multiple Swiss Championship and Swiss Cup titles.
Outside hitter Malayna Boyles, a 6-foot-1 product of Lantana, Texas, compiled 796 kills, 460 digs and 108 blocks across her four-year career at Denton Guyer High School.
Setter Lily Rolfes, a 5-foot-9 signee from Phoenix, Ariz., led the state with 1,195 assists as a junior and totaled more than 3,000 assists and 804 digs at Sunrise Mountain High School while guiding her program to back-to-back 5A state runner-up finishes.
Libero Viktoria Ninova, a 5-foot-8 addition from Sofia, Bulgaria, earned Best Libero honors at the 2025 U19 World Championship and has senior national team experience at the 2025 FIVB World Championship and Volleyball Nations League.
Right side/outside hitter Kayla Edginton, a 6-foot-2 signee from Malvern, Pa., was the 2025 Inter-Ac MVP at Academy of Notre Dame de Namur, setting the school's single-season blocks record as a junior and leading her team to back-to-back PAISSA state titles.
The additions come as the Big 12 continues to establish itself as one of the premier conferences in the country. The league sent a conference-record 10 teams to the 2025 NCAA Tournament — the most in the nation — advancing eight to the second round, a Big 12 record and pushing two programs to the Sweet 16.
The conference also finished with the No. 1 RPI in the nation, placing 10 teams in the top 45 and six in the top 25 nationally, while posting a nation-leading .788 non-conference win percentage (130-35) against Division I opponents.
Seven Big 12 teams, tied for the most of any conference, finished in the final AVCA Top 25 poll, led by No. 12 Arizona State, with Kansas State also receiving votes.
With a proven leader in Nolan, veteran transfer talent in Rome, Lijic and Simovski, and a deep freshman class boasting international and elite high school pedigree, Cincinnati enters 2026 poised to make its mark in one of the toughest volleyball conferences in the country.