CHICAGO – The UIC volleyball team is excited to begin its fifth season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference, as it unveiled its 2026 schedule Wednesday afternoon. The Flames will face a challenging 28-match slate this fall, highlighted by 11 home matches.

"The first thing that is exciting is we are all gifted an extra week of preseason training," head coach Justin Ingram said. "What that does is it creates one more week of continuity and one more week of consistency. So, these first couple of weekends are geared more towards what our averages could be and that could be a nice thing. We do have a lot of new incoming student athletes on this roster, and extra days of training could really help with that continuity."

This will be the fourth season the Flames will be competing primarily at Credit Union 1 Arena, with the final two regular-season home matches to be contested at the Flames Athletic Center. Doors will open one hour before first serve each match.

Details on single match tickets for the 2026 season will be available via the UIC Athletics Ticket Office, which can be reached by phone (312.996.5580) or e-mail (athleticsticketing@uic.edu).

UIC returns nine student-athletes and will be welcoming nine newcomers this fall. Redshirt junior Mihaela Harizanova leads the returning group after pacing the team with 634 assists last year, averaging 5.93 per set. Senior Gabi Peter also returns following a strong 2025 campaign in which she recorded 151 kills.

Key matches for UIC's 2026 season are highlighted below with the full schedule linked here:

• Aug 28-29 @ Billiken Invitational (season-opening tournament)
• Sept. 4 @ St. Thomas (2025 Summit League champion, NCAA Tournament qualifier)
• Sept. 11 vs. Auburn (home opener; first visit by a power-conference school since Northwestern in 2023 and first by an SEC program since 2004.)
• Sept. 17 vs. Loyola (2025 Atlantic 10 champion, NCAA Tournament qualifier)
• Sept. 25 vs. Illinois State (MVC home opener)
• Oct. 23 vs. Indiana State (Senior Night and Alumnae Night)
• Nov. 13 vs. Northern Iowa (2025 MVC regular season/tournament champion)
• Nov. 14 vs. Drake (regular-season finale)
• Nov. 18–24 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament (all matches played on the campus of the higher seed).

The promotional schedule for all UIC home volleyball matches will be announced on a later date.
For more information, fans are encouraged to visit UICFlames.com, or follow the Flames on social media through X (@UIC_Volleyball and @UICFlames) and Instagram (@uic_volleyball and @uicflames).
 
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