UVA Volleyball lost its 2026 season opener to American on Sunday at JPJ, falling in four sets – 21-25, 21-25, 25-22, 21-25.
This seems to fit, unfortunately: Virginia was picked to finish 11th in the 18-team ACC in the preseason poll of the league’s head coaches.
American, for its part, was picked by the coaches in the Patriot League to finish first in that conference.
Still, they’re American, of the Patriot League.
Reese Wuebker paced the UVA offense on Sunday with a match-high 18 kills in her Virginia debut. Lauryn Bowie joined Wuebker in double digits with 14 kills.
Meredith Reeg collected 14 digs, while Emily Fowler tallied six blocks, both match highs.
“My message to the athletes was that we have a lot of people playing new positions and a lot of young stuff going on. I am really proud of some of the things that we did, and kudos to American,” said Virginia head coach Shannon Wells, whose team is coming off a 13-17 season in 2025, after finishing 21-11 in 2024 – the only winning season, to date, since Wells took over as head coach in 2021.
“We want to get better,” Wells said. “I thought American put us in some tough situations and challenged us. We have some really great film and things to get better at on the volleyball court.”
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Chris Graham
