ST. PAUL, Minn. - With the 2026 volleyball season on the horizon, the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference released its annual preseason coaches poll and conference preview on Wednesday morning. The conference's coaches unanimously picked the University of Northwestern to win its 16th-consecutive UMAC championship, finishing with a total of 36 points in the poll. Beth Wilmeth remains at the helm for her 23rd season, during which she was won UMAC Coach of the Year 10 times, AVCA Region 9 Coach of the Year three times, and AVCA Division III Coach of the Year once.

The full UMAC preview can be found here.

The 2026 Eagles return a bulk of their roster from a season ago (23-8 overall, 12-0 UMAC), which ended with a first-round exit in the NCAA Division III National Tournament, but will be missing an all-time great in the middle. Two-time AVCA All-American Marley Aune (New Brighton, Minn./Avail Academy) has graduated, but her running mate in the middle, two-time First Team All-UMAC selection Miranda Wyatt (Manhattan, Mont./Manhattan Christian), is back for a third season in purple and is among the favorites to be the Conference Player of the Year. The Montana native was the UMAC's top hitter at .418 in conference matches, and she tied for fourth in blocks (28), and finished seventh in kills per set (2.50). UNW does return one All-American in 2026, as setter Addeson Jenniges (Walnut Grove, Minn./Westbrook-Walnut Grove) earned Honorable Mention honors from the AVCA after finishing seventh in the country in assists per set (10.50). She also led the UMAC in the category in her sophomore season (11.00), as well as total assists (407).

Jenniges will be setting up a pair of all-conference returnees on the outside, as Ana Egge (Rapid City, S.D./Rapid City Christian) and Anja Jarchow (Luverne, Minn./Luverne) are both back for their junior campaigns. The pair sported matching 295 kill totals in 2025 and both received First Team All-Conference nods for their efforts. Jarchow was slightly more efficient in league play with 3.30 kills per set (fourth in the UMAC) on .291 hitting (fifth), while Egge finished at 2.37 (11th) and .279 (seventh), respectively. With three players from the 2025 roster having graduated, some new faces may factor into the rotation. Alana Costello (Mead, Colo./Mead), the seventh-ranked libero in Colorado, figures to see time early, while Siri Bach (Watertown, S.D./Watertown) (11th-ranked overall player in South Dakota) and Abbie Brand (Pella, Iowa/Pella) (leading blocker in Iowa 4A) will vie to replace Aune at middle blocker opposite Wyatt.

Northwestern will begin its season on the road at Saint Benedict on Tuesday, September 1st at 7:00 PM.

2026 UMAC Volleyball Preseason Poll

Place	School	Points
1	Northwestern (6)	36
2	UW-Superior (1)	30
3	Bethany Lutheran	25
4	Minnesota Morris	23
5	Crown	15
6	Martin Luther	12
7	North Central	6