- The 42nd season of Big Ten Conference volleyball opens this weekend with a full slate of matches featuring all 14 member schools. The Big Ten is coming off another landmark season in 2021, culminating with Wisconsin earning its first national championship with a thrilling five-set win over fellow Big Ten member Nebraska in the title match before an NCAA-record crowd of 18,755 fans at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
- Among the highlights of the Big Ten’s opening weekend schedule is No. 7 Ohio State playing host to second-ranked Texas in a pair of matches on Friday and Saturday at the Covelli Center. Both contests will start at 8 p.m. (ET), with Friday’s match televised live nationally on FS1 and Saturday’s match broadcast live to a national audience on the Big Ten Network.
- The Big 12/Big Ten Challenge is also on the docket this weekend at TCU’s Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas. Reigning national champion (and three-time defending Big Ten champion) Wisconsin opens defense of its titles as the third-ranked Badgers take on host TCU Friday and No. 16 Baylor Saturday. No. 5 Minnesota will also represent the Big Ten at this weekend’s Challenge, facing Baylor on Friday and TCU on Saturday — the Challenge matches involving TCU will be streamed on ESPN+.
- The other Top 25 contest involving a Big Ten squad this weekend will take place Saturday, when No. 17 Illinois makes its season debut at the Ole Miss Invitational in Oxford, Miss., against No. 9 Georgia Tech.
- Three Big Ten programs will start their seasons this weekend with new head coaches at the helm. Iowa welcomes Jim Barnes to town, with the 24-year veteran having made prior stops at Lamar, Wyoming, Baylor and most recently, Tulane. Leah Johnson comes to Michigan State from Illinois State, where she successfully guided the Redbirds for five seasons (along with six prior years at SIU Edwardsville). Lastly, former Penn State All-American Katie Schumacher-Cawley moves from the associate head coach role at PSU that she held the past four years to take the baton from legendary Hall of Famer Russ Rose, who retired after the 2021 season.
- The Big Ten leads all conferences with exactly half (7) of its teams ranked in the American…
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