Wahine volleyball team catches a slight break in new MWC format

The Mountain West Conference announced its women’s volleyball league schedule for the upcoming season on Wednesday, and unlike last year, will have teams playing their opponents twice in the same week.

A large reason for this is so Hawaii, which has to fly at least five hours to the mainland, will play the same opponent twice rather than two opponents. Also, the teams making the long trip here will play two matches instead of just one.

Hawaii will play two-match series against all nine conference opponents.

The Rainbow Wahine, who have spent the last 14 seasons in the Big West Conference, always played two different opponents each week of the conference season. Air travel will generally be farther for UH in the MWC, as the Big West teams are all in California.

This schedule sets up more like the men’s volleyball team, which plays the same opponent twice each week in conference play.

“We’re looking forward to the start of this new era of Mountain West volleyball in Hawaii,” Hawaii associate coach Kaleo Baxter said Wednesday. “It’s been a long time coming and just excited to play different teams and venture off to different parts of America to play what is probably going to be a different style of volleyball than what we played in the Big West.”

Hawaii will host MWC play on Sept. 25 and 26 against New Mexico. UH will also host San Jose State, UNLV, Nevada and Air Force.

Hawaii’s road series will be at Grand Canyon, Wyoming, UC Davis and UTEP.

In 2027, the Wahine will host the teams they play on the road this year, and vice versa.

Every conference match will be available on the new MWC subscription streaming platform.

Most conference games will be played on Thursdays and Saturdays. Hawaii will play on back-to-back nights beginning on Fridays.

“We feel like it’s the right move when you look at everything involved,” Baxter said. “Travel, logistics, checking in and out of hotels, we only have to stay at one hotel instead of two or sometimes three and these players on every team get to prepare for an entire week to focus on one opponent rather than splitting their time between two.”

UH’s nonconference schedule will be announced at a later date.

Hawaii head coach Robyn Ah Mow will enter her 10th season with four returning starters who earned honorable mention All-Big West honors in setter Adrianna Arquette, libero Victoria Leyva, outside hitter Cha’lei Reid and middle blocker Miliana Sylvester.

The 2026 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Women’s Volleyball Championship will be Nov. 24-25 at the Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nev.

The top four teams in league standings will qualify for the tournament, which will be a single-elimination, three-match event.