2/1/2026
As the opening month of the D3 Men’s Volleyball season has now closed, the main theme we see over and over is “parity”. Unlike the past number of season where there was a very clear top echelon of teams, this season appears that any top 40 team can beat another on any given day. This weekend certainly had its fill of what we perceived as underdog wins. But the reality may just be that the level of D3 volleyball continues to rise and stars and teams working together around the country can drive their schools to success.
90+ matches on Saturday were the most played on one day all season for 2026.
420 Matches were played in January. Saturday’s schedule represented over 20% of the entire 2026 schedule.
Carthage slides into the #1 slot in the insidehitter.com computer algorithm with Juniata’s loss.
There are still 12 teams that are undefeated in 2026 including Carthage, SVU, Stevens, Loras, Baldwin Wallace, Buffalo State, Dominican, MIT, Neumann, Wisconsin Lutheran, St. Joe’s Brooklyn, and SUNY Old Westbury.
Westminster and Elizabethtown lead the nation with 10 wins, Each team has a loss.
Elms, Juniata, and Cal Lutheran are 9-1.
14 teams are currently winless.
Only 3 teams have yet to lose a set in 2026: Dominican, Neumann and SUNY Old Westbury.
Carthage disposed of Benedictine Saturday rather handily averaging 8 point differential per set.
Rivals Springfield and Vassar went as deep as you can in a match with Pride taking a 16-14 fifth set victory. Vassar has had a slower start but really put Springfield to the test. The Pride remain undefeated at D3.
Baldwin Wallace and UC Santa Cruz started Saturday’s match undefeated and fought as hard as any two teams can to remain that way but it was Baldwin Wallace that persisted to a 23-21 fifth set win.
Lasell sweeps Messiah… IH had Lasell in the top 30 but this was probably one of the biggest surprises of the day.
Misericordia and Hobart both have 5 losses on the young season but remain talented teams who will press toward the top 25 as the season progresses.
Loras dumped Aurora in a closely contested 4 set match. These are two elite teams that seem destined for the top 5 or 10 when the dust settles.
Wentworth outlasted SUNY New Paltz in 5 sets. The Hawks actually outscored the Leopards for the match but Wentworth pulled out the victory.
Southern Virginia continues to rip through their relatively easy schedule thus far for 26 and are 8-0. They travel to Ohio this weekend and will face Wittenberg, IIT, and Loras. The DuHawks and the Knights matchup on Saturday at 5PM. This should be a great match to watch and the home court advantage could tip the scales toward the purple and yellow.
What a huge win by Trine over Hobart in 4 sets. The Thunder are 4-5 on the season but show they can compete against teams in the top 30.
Stevens with the big win over Juniata at the Kean Clash put them back in the discussion as a top three team in the country. Kean took a set from the Ducks this weekend and pushed Messiah to a fifth set and may surprise some teams in the CVC. Elizabethtown and Drew are also off to good starts.
Rutgers is leveraging their new freshman recruits and appear to be rebounding after a sluggish start and like Misericordia find themselves in unfamiliar territory outside the top 30. Some other teams that are in the same category are Mount Union, North Central, Nazareth, and Marymount.
After a 4-0 start, Roanoke drops 2 this weekend but pushes St. John Fisher to 5 sets. The Maroons along with Randolph-Macon should fight it out for top honors in the ODAC.