Resetting The Tone: 2026 Maryland Volleyball Season Preview
The Terps enter 2026 with a fresh mentality and a squad built for the future.
Brady Ruth, Staff Writer
8/27/2026
With eyes solely on the future, Maryland volleyball is prepped and ready for another season in the Big Ten. A blend of veterans with a common mindset and a historic wave of new talent have head coach Adam Hughes optimistic entering his ninth year at the helm of the program.
“The energy is much higher,” Hughes said. “This group is very hungry. When they’re hungry and focused, they’ve got a lot of potential, both short and long term. We’ve got this unique blend of experienced vets who have been burned by the past and a bunch of young players with youthful enthusiasm.”
Bolstered by a new staff, a “healthy group of returners” and one of the best incoming classes in program history, the 2026 Maryland Terrapins are not the same team they were a season ago.
We're really excited to be able to be a brand new team. We are already so tight-knit as a group, and we know we’re going to do big things, and we’re excited about it.Haley Melby
Melby is one of five seniors on the roster that Hughes is leaning on to establish a culture of betterment within his program. Melby — alongside Sydney Bryant, Eva Rohrbach, Annika Sokol, and Alex McGillivray — return to College Park for their senior seasons as role models for the future of Maryland volleyball.
“I’m relying on the seniors,” Hughes said. “They’ve all had individual successes, but they've been able to see some of the struggles from last year. They want to release that, change the vibe, and reset the tone and direction. Their goal is to leave the program better than they found it. They know that the standard was not what we were, and they’re confident in what we can be.”
The bulk of this year’s team, however, is a young core hungry to get to work. Six incoming freshmen — Brooklynne Brass, Marlee Sivak, Ioanna Dimitriou, Elayna Davidson, Ava Brown Raina Chwialkowski — make up the No. 16-ranked freshmen class in the nation, according to Prep Dig. The class is Maryland’s second-highest ranked incoming group in program history and the highest of the Hughes era.
“I'm really excited to play with this group of girls,” Bryant said. “Our practices have been extremely competitive and we’re ready to take the court and show people what we’re made of. I’m excited to play with a young group of girls with a lot of energy and compete as a team.”
Integrating the new faces started in the spring, but they’re already coming into their own with each practice. The seniors are passing down more than wisdom to the next wave of Terps, and the blend that this year’s roster has promises to make 2026 a beneficial season for the future of the program.
“We put a lot of emphasis on leaving the program better than we found it,” Bryant said. “We've been working hard to make sure our freshmen feel comfortable and integrated and feel like they can be themselves within this team. It’s been pretty cool to step into this role and show other people the ropes.”
Gallery: Volleyball vs. Georgetown (Exh)
Hughes says there’s comfort in not trying to get back to anything, but instead having the opportunity to redesign the path forward as a team. The slate has been wiped clean, and the only path is forward — into another Big Ten season in one of college volleyball’s premier conferences.
The schedule this year is full of opportunities for a young Maryland team to make statements against premier opponents. Nine of the Terps’ 13 home matches will be against Big Ten opponents and Maryland will take over the main court XFINITY Center for three marquee matches against No. 1 Nebraska, UCLA and No. 10 Penn State.
“It's always a great time, playing in the main gym and getting some more eyes on our program,” Bryant said. "Everybody's excited for those matches. We had a great match last year against Penn State in that gym and I think the huge crowd that came out was a big help.”
The Terps will face the best of the best all season long, and again at the first-ever Big Ten Volleyball Tournament at the end of the year. Maryland doesn’t just plan to make the tournament; the Terps aspire to make a splash in Fishers, Indiana, in late November.
We want to make the Big Ten Tournament. 15 of 18 teams make it, and we’re planning on booking a stay for longer than one day. We want to be able to hang around, and we feel like we can do that.Adam Hughes
The slate is clean, the expectations are high and the opportunity is there. Now, it’s up to this new-look Maryland team to write what comes next.
