HONOLULU – The University of Hawai'i beach volleyball team announced its 2026 schedule ahead of the debut season of first-year head coach Danny Alvarez. The BeachBows home schedule includes nine regular-season dates with a pair of tournaments at Queen's Beach and the team's traditional Senior Weekend at the Ching Complex in Manoa in April.

The BeachBows will face nearly a dozen teams that finished last year in the final 2025 AVCA national poll, including all but two teams in the Top 10. Hawai'i returns 12 players from last year's team that finished 19th in the national rankings. Seven newcomers join this year's squad, including players from Australia, Brazil, New York and California.
  
Cream of the Crop: For the third year in a row, UH hosts the premier tournament in country in the OUTRIGGER Duke Kahanamoku Beach Classic. The tournament, which runs Feb. 19-21 at Queen's Beach, will feature five teams that finished last year in the top 10 of the AVCA Collegiate Beach Poll, including three top-5 squads. This year's field includes national runner-up Loyola Marymount as well as California, Stanford, Texas, UCLA and USC.

Home Sweet Home: Besides the OUTRIGGER Duke Kahanamoku Classic, UH will also compete on two other weekends at home. UH hosts the Heineken Queen's Cup, March 5-7, in Waikiki with a field that includes Chaminade, Concordia University Irvine, Pepperdine, Saint Mary's, San Jose State and UNC Wilmington. UH will play Oregon at Queen's Beach on April 10, before completing their home schedule April 11-12 in Manoa at when they take on Chaminade, Santa Clara and Oregon at the Ching Complex as part of Senior Weekend. 
  
Familiar Faces: Hawai'i has played every single team on its schedule at least once before. However UH will face three teams they have only met once before in Colorado Mesa (2022), Concordia Irvine (2024), Florida Gulf Coast (2018) and UNC Wilmington (2018). UH hosts Santa Clara during Senior Weekend, the first meeting between the teams since 2015.  
 
Road Trippin': UH will compete in 14 regular-season matches on the continent spanning three different tournaments. The 'Bows make its annual pilgrimage to Manhattan Beach for the East Meets West Invitational and neutral site matches against Texas, Florida International, LSU and Arizona State. This year's Big West Challenge will take place at Rosie's Dog Beach in Long Beach with UH taking on six conference foes in advance of the Big West Championship. Meanwhile, UH will make its first trip to Arizona in four years when it participates in the Wildcat Spring Challenge, April 3-4 in Tucson. 

Trophy Chasing: UH looks to get back to the top of the conference heap when they travel to San Luis Obispo and the campus of Cal Poly for the 2026 Big West Championship, April 23-24. The BeachBows have won four Big West titles with the last coming in 2024. From there UH aims to make it back to the NCAA Tournament, after missing out on the postseason for just the second-time ever last year.  This year's tourney will run May 1-3 in Gulf Shores, Ala.