BABSON PARK, Mass.— After appearing in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) tournament final for first time since 2022 and earning a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in the past 11 seasons, Babson College women's volleyball 16th-year head coach Eric Neely officially released his team's 2026 schedule on Thursday.

The Beavers, who have advanced to at least the second round in all nine of their NCAA Tournament appearances since 2014, will play a 27-match slate in 2026. The ledger includes 11 NEWMAC contests, three in-season tournaments, and 10 encounters against programs that competed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

Babson tips off the season with a tri-match on September 5 in Bristol, R.I., taking on Neumann and host Roger Williams. The home opener follows on September 8 when the Beavers welcome Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) champion and NCAA Tournament participant Lasell to Staake Gymnasium.

The first in-season tournament is the Bomber Invitational in Ithaca, N.Y., on September 11-12, an event that includes four NCAA Tournament teams from last year. Babson will take on Centennial Conference champion Johns Hopkins on September 11, followed by University Athletic Association (UAA) champion Carnegie Mellon and Liberty League winner and host Ithaca on November 12.

The second in-season tournament is at Staake Gymnasium as the Green and White host the New England Fall Classic on September 18-19. Babson welcomes Little East Conference (LEC) runner-up UMass Dartmouth on September 18 as well as Union and Liberty League runner-up and NCAA second round participant Williams Smith on September 19.

The NEWMAC portion of the schedule begins with five straight conference matches over the next two weeks. It starts with home tilts vs. Wheaton on September 22 and Smith on September 26, followed by road clashes at Wellesley on September 29 and Coast Guard on October 3, and winding up with a home encounter against Emerson on October 6.

The Beavers will travel to southern California on the second weekend of the month for three matches. Babson will face La Verne on October 9 followed by back-to-back encounters against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer on October 10 in Claremont. The CMS match will be a rematch of a 3-2 Babson victory over the Athenas in the first round of last fall's NCAA Tournament.

The Green and White return to New England for three straight NEWMAC matches, at WPI on October 14 and at defending champion MIT on October 20, bookended around a home match against Mount Holyoke on October 17. That leads into a third in-season tournament, the New England Challenge, in which Babson will host Middlebury on October 23 before heading to Cambridge on October 24 to take on 2025 NCAA Tournament teams Tufts and Williams, hosted by MIT.

After home matches against conference foe Salve Regina on October 27 and Endicott on October 30, the Beavers wrap up the regular season with a pair of conference clashes at Clark on November 3 and at home against Springfield on November 7.

The eight-team NEWMAC Tournament will begin with quarterfinal matches on November 10. The winners will travel to the highest remaining seed for the semifinal matches on November 14 and the tournament final on November 15. The NEWMAC champion receives an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.