(Norhternsun.org) The defending NSIC Regular Season Co-Champions of Concordia-St. Paul were picked by the league coaches in the NSIC Preseason Volleyball Poll. The Golden Bears are coming off a 2025 season where they finished 31-6 overall and 19-1 in NSIC play while advancing to the NCAA National Championship match. CSP received 11 first place votes to tally 220 points.
Wayne State, which shared the NSIC Regular Season title with CSP, was picked second with 207 points and three first place votes while defending NSIC Tournament Champion, St. Cloud State was third with 199 points and the other two first place votes.
The 2026 NSIC Volleyball season will begin with non-conference matches on Thursday, August 27 while the NSIC schedule begins September 11. The NSIC regular season champion will be determined by the 20-match conference schedule. The 2026 NSIC Volleyball Tournament shall be an eight-team tournament with the quarterfinals hosted at the top four seeds on Tuesday, November 10 and the semifinals/championship matches hosted at the highest remaining seed. The semifinals/championship matches will take place on two consecutive days between Friday and Sunday, November 13-15 with the dates of competition determined by the host institution.
New for the 2026 season, the NSIC Network is now powered by Midco Sports Plus, the conference’s new streaming home for exclusive live and on-demand coverage of all 16 NSIC member institutions. Fans can stream every home regular season conference and non-conference home volleyball match, along with NSIC championship events, through a monthly ($15) or annual subscription (less than $7 per month). Subscriptions are available at MidcoSportsPlus.com or through the Midco Sports Plus app on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Fire TV and Roku.
We lost some very valuable pieces of our team with the graduation of Natalia Szybinska (OH), Abby Brooks (MB) and Abby Schauer (Libero) while adding seven new freshman this fall. We will rely heavily on our returners to carry a heavy load in practice and in matches this fall. I do think that we will have some very nice battles in practice and I look forward to watching how it all plays out. The turn around to our first preseason tournament will be pretty fast. I look forward to watching as our team develops a new identity that occurs with the graduation of three very talented players. The opportunity to step up is there for the next player to win playing time. As always we look forward to another competitive season in the NSIC.
Head Coach Brent Aldridge
Player to watch: Ava Nilsson
Ava is a local player from Warner High School that was on our recruiting radar very early in her career. Ava has the ability to make players better around her. She has a very calm and positive demeanor on the court. Ava’s a very well-rounded person on the court, in the classroom and life in general. Ava is relentless in her pursuit of excellence. She watches film, devours scouting reports, watches opponents’ film, our practice film and never stops working to make technical changes in her game.
