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LANCASTER, Pa.- The Franklin & Marshall volleyball team has announced its 2026 schedule, as the Diplomats look to follow up on a 2025 season that produced back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and the program’s first tournament victory since 2000.
The 2026 schedule features 13 non-conference matches in September ahead of the ten-match Centennial Conference schedule that spans October and early November. Eight matches will be played at the Mayser Center, 11 contests are away, and four games will be played at neutral sites.
An away trip to Rowan on Tuesday, September 1 opens the season, marking the first matchup in the series since 2016. Next is a four-match tournament at Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. The Diplomats will play Pacific Lutheran, Puget Sound, defending national champions Wisconsin-Oshkosh, and Wisconsin-River Falls across Friday, September 4, and Saturday, September 5. All teams will be first-time opponents. The Diplomats are at home for the first time in 2026 as they face Penn State Harrisburg and Susquehanna in a quad match on Saturday, September 12, with both sides returning from the 2025 schedule. Lancaster Bible will complete the quad-match lineup but won’t face the Diplomats on the day.
The Diplomats return to the road in the next week with trips to Marymount (Tuesday, September 15) and Lancaster Bible (Friday, September 18) during the week before traveling to Montclair State on Saturday, September 19 for a tri-match also featuring Whittier. The non-conference slate wraps up with a trip to Juniata on Thursday September 24 and a home match against Elizabethtown on Tuesday, September 29. Lancaster Bible, Juniata, and Elizabethtown were 2025 opponents, while F&M resumes series against Marymount, Montclair State, and Whittier.
Four of F&M’s 13 non-conference opponents also competed in 2025’s NCAA Division III Women’s Volleyball Tournament including national champions Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Pacific Lutheran, Marymount, and Juniata.
F&M begins the Centennial Conference schedule in a rematch of 2025’s Centennial Conference Tournament Semifinal at Haverford on Saturday, October 3. That’s followed by hosting McDaniel on Wednesday, October 7. F&M is on the road the following week at Gettysburg on Wednesday, October 14 and at defending conference champions Johns Hopkins in a championship rematch on Saturday, October 17. F&M hosts Muhlenberg (Wednesday, October 21) and Washington College (Saturday, October 24) ahead of back-to-back away matches at Ursinus (Wednesday, October 28) and Dickinson (Saturday, October 31). The final week of the regular season sees F&M host Bryn Mawr (Wednesday, November 4) and Swarthmore (Saturday, November 7).
The Diplomats went 9-1 in the regular season last year, suffering the team’s lone in-conference loss to Johns Hopkins in straight sets, while the Blue Jays went on to win the Centennial Conference Championship in four sets. Centennial Conference sweeps came against Bryn Mawr, Ursinus, Washington College, and McDaniel. The team earned four-set victories against Haverford (regular season and postseason), Muhlenberg, and Swarthmore, while five-set wins last year included Gettysburg and Dickinson.
The six-team Centennial Conference Tournament opens with first-round action on Wednesday, November 11 ahead of the semifinal round on Friday, November 13. The 2026 Centennial Conference Tournament champion will be crowned on Sunday, November 15.
The 64-team NCAA Division III Women’s Volleyball Tournament opens with the eight-team regionals from Thursday, November 19 through Saturday, November 21. Regional winners book a spot to the final week of the tournament at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse on the campus of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. The quarterfinal round begins the week on Wednesday, December 2 before the semifinals matches are played on Thursday, December 3. The 2026 National Championship match will be contested on Saturday, December 5.
A full preview of the 2026 season will be released closer to the beginning of play.
