ALISO VIEJO, Calif. — The Master’s will open the 2026 season ranked No. 15 in the NAIA Women’s Volleyball Coaches’ Top 25 Preseason Poll, released Wednesday by the national office.

The Mustangs are the lone Great Southwest Athletic Conference program represented in the preseason Top 25. The No. 15 ranking is one spot higher than where The Master’s finished the 2025 season, when the Mustangs were No. 16 in the postseason poll.

Wednesday's ranking extends The Master’s streak to 11 consecutive Top 25 appearances, a run that began on Nov. 13, 2024. The Mustangs have reached No. 11 four times during the current streak, most recently in the Nov. 12, 2025 poll.

The Master’s has now appeared in the NAIA Top 25 45 times in program history. The Mustangs first entered the national rankings during the 2012 season and reached their highest ranking in program history at No. 6 on Nov. 11, 2012.

The program's longest stretch in the national rankings came from Sept. 4, 2012 through Aug. 19, 2014, when The Master’s appeared in 24 consecutive polls.

The Mustangs enter the new season following a 24-5 campaign in which they swept the GSAC regular-season and tournament championships and advanced to the final site of the NAIA Women’s Volleyball National Championship. The Master’s returns all seven starters and its starting libero from that team and was selected first in the 2026 GSAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll.

There is a new team atop the national rankings entering 2026, as Northwestern (Iowa) moved to No. 1 after finishing last season as the national runner-up.

Eastern Oregon begins the season at No. 2, followed by Concordia (Neb.) at No. 3. Three-time defending national champion Indiana Wesleyan dropped from the top spot to No. 4, while Bellevue (Neb.) rounds out the preseason top five.

Several programs made significant moves from the final 2025 rankings. McPherson (Kan.) climbed to No. 7 following a 34-3 season, while Oklahoma Wesleyan moved up to No. 12 and The Master’s advanced to No. 15. Southern Oregon made one of the largest jumps, moving from the receiving-votes category into the Top 25 at No. 22.

The preseason poll sets the national landscape ahead of the opening of the 2026 season on Friday, Aug. 14.