Lincoln Trail Conference Volleyball 2026: Standings, Records and Every Team
Fourteen area schools play girls volleyball. Twelve of them play in the same conference. And through the opening week, the two teams that finished first and second last season are heading in opposite directions.
This page tracks all of them, and is updated through the season.
Where everyone stands
Records through August 29.
| Team | 2026 | 2025 | Coach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wethersfield | 3-1 | 30-7, 2nd in LTC | Tonya Vincent |
| Monmouth-Roseville | 2-1 | 11-26 | Kristen Mynatt |
| Knoxville | 2-1 | 15-20 | Madi Fellhauer |
| Bureau Valley | 2-1 | 15-17 | Saige Barnett |
| United | 2-2 | 16-20 | Courtney Young |
| Princeville | 2-4 | 11-21 | Ashley Lauber |
| West Central | 1-0 | 14-14 | Stephanie Higgins |
| Galesburg | 1-1 | 15-21 | Nicole Kisler |
| Galva | 1-1 | 6-22 | Heather Anderson |
| Ridgewood | 1-3 | 2-29 | Ciara Clark |
| Abingdon-Avon | 0-1 | 6-29 | Ramona Tinkham |
| Stark County | 0-1 | 9-18 | — |
| ROWVA/Williamsfield | 0-3 | 32-7, LTC champions | Lori Secrist |
| Annawan | 0-3 | 10-20 | Gina Peterson |
The defending champions are 0-3
ROWVA/Williamsfield went 32-7 last season — a school record for wins — won the Lincoln Trail Conference, and took a regional title at Bureau Valley, beating Wethersfield in a three-set final that earned the bus a police escort back into Oneida.
They have opened 2026 with three straight losses: at Brimfield, at home to Cuba/Spoon River Valley, and to United in three.
Four seniors’ worth of experience left. What returns is a strong junior core — setter Lyllah Shaffer, outside hitters Eliza Tucker and Kennedy Miller, libero Ava Storm — alongside seniors Addison Byrd, Kinley Danner, Maddi McGarry and Hannah Gehring.
Three matches is not a season. But it is a notable start for the best team in the area.
Wethersfield look like the team to beat
The Flying Geese are 3-1, with wins at Putnam County, over Alleman and a straight-sets win over Monmouth-Roseville on August 29.
What makes it interesting is who is doing it. Wethersfield has two seniors and is starting two freshmen. Freshman setter Olivia Shipley already leads the team in assists and aces. Sophomore Kyleigh Anderson leads in both kills and digs.
Wethersfield won the conference in 2024, finished second in 2025, and reached the regional final both years. Tonya Vincent coaches.
Galesburg has eight seniors
The most experienced roster in the area belongs to the school that went 3-11 in the Western Big 6 last season.
Nicole Kisler’s team returns eight seniors: Taylor Adams, Evelin Guel, Grace and Taylor Herchenroder, Macey Huft, Cali Froelich, Molly Tomeo and Addy Painter. Adams leads at four kills a set; Guel is at 3.5 digs; junior middle Ellie Johnson is hitting .556.
Galesburg is 1-1 and plays a Western Big 6 schedule nobody else here faces. Conference play opens at home to Moline on September 3.
The conference
The Lincoln Trail Conference has twelve volleyball members — every school we cover except Galesburg (Western Big 6) and Monmouth-Roseville (Three Rivers).
It was founded in 1976 with eight schools: Alexis, AlWood, Cambridge, Galva, ROVA, Toulon-LaFayette, Wethersfield and Winola. Almost every name on that list has since merged into something else — ROVA became ROWVA in 1987, Toulon-LaFayette became Stark County in 1992, Alexis became United in 2004.
Abingdon-Avon and Knoxville joined in 2021. Bureau Valley arrived in 2024 from the Three Rivers, as Mercer County went the other way.
Matches worth the drive
- Sept 16 — Bureau Valley at Knoxville. Two 2-1 teams, and probably the best conference match of September.
- Sept 21 — Wethersfield at Galva, the first of a three-match stretch that will define the Geese’s title case.
- Sept 30 — Wethersfield at ROWVA/Williamsfield. Last year’s regional final, in Oneida.
- Sept 30 — Knoxville at Galva and Ridgewood at Bureau Valley, closing the month.
- Oct 5 — Annawan vs Wethersfield. Two schools that share a football team and play each other at everything else.
2025, for reference
| # | Team | Conf | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ROWVA/Williamsfield | 11-1 | 32-7 |
| 2 | Wethersfield | 10-1 | 30-7 |
| 3 | West Central | 7-3 | 14-14 |
| 4 | Bureau Valley | 8-4 | 15-17 |
| 5 | Princeville | 6-5 | 11-21 |
| 6 | United | 6-5 | 16-20 |
| 7 | Knoxville | 5-6 | 15-20 |
| 8 | Annawan | 5-6 | 10-20 |
| 9 | Stark County | 5-6 | 9-18 |
| 10 | Abingdon-Avon | 3-8 | 6-29 |
| 11 | Galva | 1-10 | 6-22 |
| 12 | Ridgewood | 0-11 | 2-29 |
One caveat worth printing: ROWVA’s own district described its 2025 season as “10-1, second place,” which contradicts the 11-1 first-place figure in the compiled standings. We are seeking confirmation from the conference.
Ridgewood won a match
Easy to miss on a standings table. Ridgewood went 2-29 last season and 0-11 in the conference. On August 29 they beat Rockridge in three sets.
That is roughly their third win in thirty-five matches going back to the start of 2025. In a season that will be measured in small increments, it counts.
The postseason
State semifinals are Friday, November 13, and the finals and third-place games Saturday, November 14, at CEFCU Arena on the Illinois State University campus in Normal. Class 1A goes first both days, at 9:00 and 10:30 in the morning.
Regional, sectional and super-sectional dates and assignments for 2026 have not yet been published by the IHSA. We will post them here when they are.
What this group has actually done in November
No school in this group has won an IHSA volleyball state championship or finished as runner-up. But that sentence, on its own, undersells the history, and an earlier version of this page left it there without the rest. Three area teams have reached the state finals, and one of them medalled.
Wethersfield finished third in Class 1A in 2015-16, going 33-8 under Tonya Vincent and winning a regional, a sectional and a super-sectional to get there. It is the only recorded state-finals placing by any school in this coverage area, and the only filled place column in the Hornets’ entire IHSA file.
Two others qualified for state without a recorded finish. Roseville won a super-sectional in 2004-05 with a 35-5 team, and Monmouth High School did the same in 1979-80 at 22-3 under Debi Brokaw. In both cases the IHSA leaves the placing column blank, so whether either team medalled is something we have not been able to establish. Bureau Valley also qualified for the Class A finals in 2005-06 at 32-5 under Vicki Litherland, again with no recorded place.
If you were connected to any of those four teams and know how the weekend ended, we would like to hear from you — those results exist in people’s memories and scrapbooks, and apparently nowhere in the public record.
Beyond state, the deepest recent runs belong to Annawan (sectional titles in 1994-95 and 2023-24), Wethersfield (2015-16 and 2016-17) and United (2007-08). Knoxville, with 649 all-time wins and eleven regional championships, has never won a sectional. Neither has Princeville, with 503 wins and eight regionals. Galva has never won a title of any kind in 43 seasons.
What we are missing
We would rather list the gaps than quietly leave them out:
- Stark County’s head coach is not listed anywhere we can find
- Bureau Valley and Princeville rosters are not published
- Annawan lists two head coaches, Gina Peterson and Allie Mackey — we do not know which is varsity
- ROWVA/Williamsfield’s 2026 conference is listed as Inter County in one place and Lincoln Trail in another
- Most schools have entered no player statistics for 2026
If you coach, play for, or follow any of these programmes and can fill a gap, send it over. We will credit you and correct same day.
Records compiled from MaxPreps schedule pages, the Lincoln Trail Conference, the IHSA and local reporting. Updated weekly through the season.
