2025-26 Volleyball Schedule
Island Rivalry Home Opener and a Halloween night with COTR highlight this year's schedule release
NANAIMO - The long road back to the PACWEST Volleyball Championships has been laid out for the Mariners with the PACWEST Conference's 2025-26 volleyball schedule release.
The Mariners women's and men's volleyball teams start the 2025 PACWEST regular season on the road October 17 and 18 in Abbotsford against the Columbia Bible College Bearcats.
Island Rivalry games against Victoria's Camosun Chargers always draw considerable attention and excitement, so the schedule maker gave local fans a gift: an Island Rivalry VIU home opening weekend on Friday, October 24 and Saturday, October 25.
The crowd will go from galvanized to ghoulish the next week as the COTR Avalanche visit Nanaimo for a Thursday and Friday back-to-back on October 30 and Halloween night, October 31. After those games, home fans will have to wait two and a half months for the Mariners to return to home court and a January 16 matchup with the Capilano Blues.
The Mariners finish off the regular season at home on February 13 and 14 against the CBC Bearcats. This weekend also marks the Mariners Volleyball Alumni Weekend. During the February 14th game, VIU's 2016 CCAA Women's Volleyball National Championship-winning team will be recognized in honour of the tenth anniversary of their run to national gold.
VIU season at a glance
- Twenty matches: ten at home and ten on the road
- Four matches against each PACWEST opponent: Douglas Royals, Capilano Blues, CBC Bearcats, COTR Avalanche, and Camosun Chargers. Matchups are evenly split between road and home games
- All VIU home games take place at the VIU Gymnasium (Building 190) on VIU's Nanaimo campus
- All Friday home game days (and Thursday, October 30) feature a women's match at 6 pm followed by a men's match at 8 pm
- On Saturday home game days, games are at 1 pm and 3 pm
- All games are livestreamed by SportsCanada.tv through YouTube. Home games are on the VIU Mariners Athletics YouTube page
Schedule (home games in bold)
- October 17 and 18 at CBC Bearcats
- October 24 and 25 vs Camosun Chargers
- October 30 and 31 vs COTR Avalanche
- November 14 and 15 at Capilano Blues
- November 21 and 22 at Douglas Royals
- January 9 and 10 at Camosun Chargers
- January 16 and 17 vs Capilano Blues
- January 30 and 31 vs Douglas Royals
- February 6 and 7 at COTR Avalanche
- February 13 and 14 vs CBC Bearcats
The top four women's teams and the top four men's teams advance to the 2026 PACWEST Volleyball Championships, hosted by Columbia Bible College on February 27 and 28.
Conference champions will advance to the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association's national championships, March 11-14, 2026. The women's championship will be hosted by Providence University College (Otterburne, MB) and the men's tournament is hosted by NAIT (Edmonton, AB).
For more information, please contact Matt Carter, VIU Communications and Sports Information Coordinator.