BATON ROUGE, La. — The Southern University volleyball team is set to open the 2026 regular season with a trip to Jacksonville, Alabama, for the Gamecock Classic, hosted by Jacksonville State, beginning Friday.
 
The Lady Jaguars will face Jacksonville, Southern Miss and host Jacksonville State during the tournament.
 
Southern will see both Southern Miss and Jacksonville State again later in the season. The Lady Jaguars will face the Golden Eagles in the finale of the Southern Miss Invitational before meeting the Gamecocks again at the Crimson Classic.
 
The Lady Jaguars last faced Jacksonville in 2024, dropping both meetings. The Dolphins claimed the first match, 3-1, before earning a 3-0 victory in the second contest.
 
Southern also last faced Southern Miss in 2024. The two programs have met six times, with the Golden Eagles winning each of the previous six matchups.
 
Saturday's meeting with Jacksonville State will mark the first matchup between the programs in 25 years. The Gamecocks won the only previous meeting, 3-0, in Baton Rouge.
 
Southern enters the season looking to build on the momentum of a historic 2025 campaign that saw the Lady Jaguars advance to the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship match for the first time since 2014.
 
The Lady Jaguars finished the season with 16 victories, their highest single-season win total since 2003, while their nine conference wins marked the program's most since recording 11 in 2019. Southern also finished above .500 in SWAC play in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2018 and 2019.
 
Preseason Second Team All-SWAC selection Najah Harris enters her senior season looking to further cement her place among the top defensive players in program history. Harris is coming off a standout 2025 campaign in which she recorded 478 digs, the second-highest single-season total in Southern history.
 
With 931 career digs, Harris currently ranks fourth in program history and is 270 digs away from moving into second place. She also ranks 16th in career service aces with 71 and needs nine more to crack the program's top 10.
 
Harris carried that momentum into Southern's exhibition against Louisiana Tech, recording more than 20 digs and two service aces.
 
Other key contributors in the four-set exhibition included Sereniti Johnson and Mariah Mott, who each recorded more than 10 kills. Johnson added more than 10 digs to finish with a double-double.
 
Maleah Faust and Penina Vito also split time at setter, with both recording more than 10 assists as the Lady Jaguars prepare to officially open the 2026 campaign.

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