Illini volleyball set to open season at home

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) - Illinois volleyball will host Cincinnati on Friday, Aug. 28 for its regular season opener.

The Illini are hoping to respond after missing the NCAA Tournament, and finishing 13-16 overall, in 2025.

Illinois' non-conference schedule is expanded in 2026, as the Big Ten moved to just 17 conference games and added a conference tournament.

"You do have to supplement extra matches [in non-conference play] to keep your RPI high, to make sure your team is getting enough play that's going to potentially look good for a committee down the line," Illinois head volleyball coach Chris Tamas said.

He says less time in between games can make practice schedules tricky, but Illinois was able to start practicing one week earlier this year to help with that.

Illinois lost to Bradley in a preseason exhibition game, but Tamas isn't overly concerned with the result of that game, which won't count on his team's record.

"I think for the most part it's just learning how to compete with one another," Tamas said. "The whole point of the exhibition is to get the jitters out, and I think we did and able to address everything that needs to be addressed. Part of that is the pressure of playing in Huff [Hall] and wearing an Illinois jersey and everything else. And so I'm totally fine with how it went. And then we got to just keep learning throughout the whole process. And so we try to get a different looks where, you know, we use it for information and we got the information we needed out of it.."

Following Friday's home opener against Cincinnati, the Illini stay in Champaign to host Syracuse on Sunday, Aug. 28 before hitting the road to visit Tennessee on Tuesday, Sept. 1.