CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) office announced the 2026 Beach Volleyball Coaches' Preseason Poll earlier today, where the Corban University Beach Volleyball program was selected to defend their back-to-back regular season championships as the preseason favorites to repeat once again this upcoming spring slate. The Navy and Gold have won the CCC regular season championship in both seasons of its presence, while they hosted and won the inaugural CCC Tournament championship last April to earn the conference's sole automatic bid to the NAIA National Invitational.

To view the conference's release on the 2026 Beach Volleyball Coaches' Preseason Poll, click HERE.

"Preseason rankings are always a best guess really hard to know which programs properly reloaded and which are rebuilding," expressed Warriors' head coach Dan Stephens when asked to discuss today's preseason poll results. "We appreciate the respect that most of the conference has given us and we feel we have that potential to be the top of the CCC once again. We know it will be a tough battle within our conference with a number of strong, experienced beach players being added to rosters. We have a strong team ourselves, and we will know soon how well we match up within our conference."

Unsurprisingly, the two-time regular season champion Warriors will start the 2026 campaign atop the preseason rankings after earning five of the six first place votes up for grabs that equates to 35 voter points, with Southern Oregon University receiving the lone remaining first-place vote and 31 total voter points. Corban finished the 2025 season 5-0 against the Raiders, including a reverse sweep in the national semifinals that provided the Navy and Gold with their third national championship match appearance in the four years of the NAIA invitational's existence.

The College of Idaho (24) picked up the third place ranking, which is right where they finished in the 2025 CCC Championship tournament and regular season standings. The only two teams to flip in comparison to where they concluded the 2025 season were Bushnell University (18) and Northwest University (14), with the Beacons earning the final "postseason favorite" designation as a top four team despite the Eagles earning the distinction themselves last year instead. Simpson University (7) rounded out the six-team conference as they enter their second overall season as a varsity program.

Warrior beach volleyball is slated to host their Navy and Gold Intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday, January 31st at the sand volleyball courts atop Corban's campus, with their first counting competition scheduled for Valentines Day weekend when they travel to Santa Clarita, California for The Master's round-robin Tournament. To view the Warriors' complete 2026 spring schedule, click HERE.

2026 CCC Beach Volleyball Coaches' Preseason Poll Results

The NAIA Beach Volleyball Coaches' Preseason Poll will be released on Wednesday, January 21st.

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