Kirt Announces 2026 Tennessee Soccer Schedule

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee soccer head coach Joe Kirt announced the program's 2026 schedule on Tuesday. The 2026 slate includes 11 home matches at Regal Stadium and 13 contests against teams that reached the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

"We are excited to announce our 2026 schedule," said Kirt. "We've assembled a challenging schedule to prepare our team for SEC play this year, highlighted by hosting two Big Ten teams in Rutgers and Northwestern at Regal Stadium. Just two weeks before our team arrives back on Rocky Top, they are hungry and excited to get back on the field!"

The Lady Vols will play an away exhibition match to prepare for the start of the season as the team heads southeast to take on Clemson on August 5.

Tennessee will open the 2026 season with five consecutive home contests at Regal Stadium. The Lady Vols host UNC Ashville for the season opener on August 8, before Big Ten foe Rutgers comes to town on August 13. Tennessee will wrap up the home stand with matches against South Alabama (Aug. 16), Milwaukee (Aug. 20), and Western Carolina (Aug. 23).

A marquee match up awaits Tennessee on the team's first road trip of the season. The Lady Vols will head to Charlottesville, Virginia, on September 3 to take on Virginia, who was a No. 1 seed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Tennessee will then return home to close the non-conference slate with a second consecutive power conference match up against Northwestern on September 6.

The Lady Vols open SEC play with a pair of road contests, beginning with LSU on September 11. Tennessee will then head to the Lone Star State to take on Texas on September 18, marking the first meeting with the Longhorns since 1997 and the first-ever meeting as conference opponents.

The first home SEC match of the 2026 season will be on September 24 against Mississippi State, followed by a huge in-state match up with Vanderbilt on September 27 at Regal Stadium. The Bulldogs and Commodores delivered Tennessee's only two regular season losses in 2025.

Tennessee will kickoff the month of October with a match at Auburn on October 1, followed by a contest at South Carolina on October 9. SEC play will roll on as the Lady Vols host Arkansas (Oct. 15) and Kentucky (Oct. 18) at Regal Stadium. The first four matches of October will be against teams Tennessee did not face in 2025.

The Lady Vols' final regular season road match of 2026 will be at Alabama, as they take on the Crimson Tide on October 23. Tennessee has not lost to Alabama since a 4-2 defeat in 2022 at Regal Stadium.

The 2026 regular season finale for Tennessee will be on November 1 at Regal Stadium, as the Lady Vols host Oklahoma. It will be the Sooners' first trip to Knoxville as an SEC opponent.

The 2026 SEC Tournament will return to Pensacola, Florida, spanning from November 8 through November 15. The NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship Selection Show will follow shortly after on November 16, before the first round of the NCAA Tournament gets underway on November 20.

Tennessee is coming off a strong 2025 campaign in which the Lady Vols posted a 12-4-3 record with a 6-2-2 conference mark, finishing fourth in the SEC. Tennessee opened the season with a marquee victory over No. 1 North Carolina, the program's first ever win over a top-ranked opponent. The Lady Vols achieved a No. 1 ranking for the first time in program history amid a seven-match unbeaten streak to open the season.

A key to success for Tennessee was defending home turf, as they were able to close the regular season with an unbeaten 7-0-1 record at Regal Stadium. In 2025, Vol nation set program records for overall attendance (24,878) and average attendance (2,764) at Regal Stadium.

The full 2026 Tennessee soccer schedule can be viewed here.

2026 Schedule Notes

Tennessee is set to host 11 regular season matches at Regal Stadium in 2026, surpassing the 2025 total of eight. It is the team's most regular season home contests since hosting 11 in 2022.
13 of the Lady Vols' 17 games in 2026 will be against teams that competed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, four of which reached the round of 16 or better.
Tennessee's non-conference match up with Rutgers will be the third all-time meeting between the teams. The Lady Vols suffered a 1-0 defeat in the most recent meeting in 2019.
Western Carolina is the lone repeat non-conference opponent from the 2025 schedule. The Lady Vols claimed a 3-0 victory over the Catamounts in Cullowhee, North Carolina, last August.
Tennessee's non-conference finale against Northwestern will be just the second all-time meeting between the schools. The Lady Vols claimed a 3-2 win at Regal Stadium in the first match up in 2000.
The Lady Vols will not leave the state of Tennessee for regular season action until September 3, when they play at Virginia in the penultimate non-conference match before SEC play.
Tennessee will travel to Louisiana and Texas for the first time since 2023 when they take on LSU and Texas in the opening two games of SEC play.
The Lady Vols will face the only two teams they lost to in the 2025 regular season, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt, in back-to-back matches in 2026.
The 2026 SEC slate features five opponents Tennessee did not face in the 2025 season: Texas, Auburn, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky.

2026 Tennessee Preview
Despite roster turnover and 15 newcomers, Tennessee will field a strong squad in 2026. Cayden Norris returns between the sticks for the Lady Vols after a sophomore season in 2025 which saw her earn Second Team All-SEC, Third Team All-Region, and Hermann Trophy Midseason Watchlist honors. Norris appeared in all 19 games, anchoring the defense to a joint single-season program record with 13 shutouts. Forward Shae O'Rourke had a strong start to the 2025 season, netting five goals in five games, before suffering a season-ending injury. She will look to return to that form as a redshirt senior in 2026. Another player coming back from injury poised to make an impact is forward Kylee Simmons. The redshirt senior missed all of 2025 to injury but is a former First Team All-SEC selection at Missouri.

The Lady Vols welcome five new transfers in 2026, highlighted by forward Kai Tsakiris and midfielder Ines Derrien. Tsakiris spent her freshman season at Florida in 2025, garnering Third Team All-SEC and Fourth Team All-Region honors behind four goals and five assists, both team highs. Derrien joins the Lady Vols from USC, where she posted five goals and five assists in two seasons with the Trojans. Senior Lauryn Berry will add depth to the goalkeeper room after leading the ASUN Conference with 116 saves in 2025 at Austin Peay. Forward Taylor Cheatham brings three years of Big Ten experience after stints at UCLA and Penn State. Defender Marlee Raymond also arrives on Rocky Top after one season at Penn State. Raymond was ranked as the No. 75 overall prospect in the 2025 class by TopDrawerSoccer.

Tennessee boasts a talented class of ten incoming freshmen, currently ranked as the No. 5 2026 signing class in the country by TopDrawerSoccer. Forwards Ayva Jordan and Jayla Blue headline the class. Jordan ranks as the No. 4 overall prospect in the class behind a decorated ECNL career. Blue, who is the sister of junior defender Nyla Blue, had a historic high school career in Knoxville, culminating in a Gatorade State Player of the Year honor. Cora Fry, Emerson Moore, Olivia Feagin, and Tesia Mikuta all rank within the top 200 of the 2026 class rankings, with the group determined to make an immediate impact on Rocky Top.