BATON ROUGE, La. — The Southern University volleyball team will open the 2026 season with an exhibition match against Louisiana Tech on Saturday at the H.W. Moody Intramural Sports Complex.
 
The Lady Jaguars enter the season looking to build on the momentum of a historic 2025 campaign that saw Southern advance to the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship match for the first time since 2014.
 
Southern finished the season with 16 victories, its highest single-season win total since 2003, while its nine conference wins marked the program's most since recording 11 in 2019. The Lady Jaguars also finished above .500 in SWAC play in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2018 and 2019.
 
The record book was rewritten throughout the 2025 campaign, as several Lady Jaguars moved into the top five in Southern's single-season and career records.
 
Senior libero Najah Harris is the lone returning player from that group. The Dallas native was recently named Preseason Second Team All-SWAC, becoming the first Lady Jaguar to earn preseason all-conference recognition since 2022.
 
Harris enters her senior season ranked fourth in program history with 931 career digs after recording 478 digs last season, the second-highest single-season total in program history. She also ranks second in career digs per set at 3.67 and sits 16th in program history with 71 service aces.
 
Southern returns six players from last season's squad: Harris, Mariah Mott, Ayana Johnson, Sereniti Johnson, Logan Hart and Zaria Nelson. With a roster featuring several newcomers, the Lady Jaguars will look to their returning experience as they work to establish their identity in 2026.
 
One of Southern's biggest departures is four-year starting setter Jordan Felix, who concluded one of the most accomplished careers in program history. Felix finished second all-time in service aces with 133, fourth in assists with 2,189, fifth in digs with 885 and 13th in kills with 616.
 
Southern will look to junior Penina Vito and freshman Maleah Faust to help fill the void at setter. Vito joins the Lady Jaguars after spending last season at Phoenix College, where she recorded 261 assists and 11 service aces. Faust arrives from Inglewood, California, after earning First Team Pioneer League honors twice, being named CIF Player of the Year in 2025 and helping lead her team to a CIF Southern Section championship.
 
The Lady Jaguars will also have to replace a significant portion of their offensive and defensive production, including 75 percent of their kills and 82 percent of their blocks from last season.
 
On the pins, Southern will lean on the experience of Johnson, Mott and Nelson while welcoming Elizabeth Lualemaga, Norielle Battle, Alayah Wilson and Alyssa Williams, who will compete for time at outside hitter and right-side positions.
 
Hart is Southern's lone returning middle blocker, but the Lady Jaguars add experience at the position with senior transfer Braelynn Reese and junior transfer Paulina Agudelo Marin. Reese joins Southern from Central State, while Agudelo Marin arrives after competing at Miami Dade College.

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