CHADRON, Neb. – Chadron State women's wrestling has three national qualifiers set to compete at the NCAA Women's Wrestling National Championships this Friday and Saturday in Coralville, Iowa. 

Brianna Vollendroff (competing at 103 pounds), Piper Cadden (131 pounds) and Esther Peters (207 pounds) will be CSC's representatives. All three are making their second career and second consecutive appearances at nationals (with Cadden's first appearance last season coming in a Fort Hays State singlet).

Peters is attempting to repeat as an All-American after becoming the first in CSC women's wrestling history with a seventh place finish at 207 last year.

The tournament will be held at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa. Tickets are available at this link. The action will begin on Friday at 9 a.m. (MT, 10 a.m. CT/local time) with the first round before Session 2, featuring the championship quarterfinals and first and second round consolation matches, begins at 3 p.m. MT. 

Saturday's action will see Session 3 (championship semis, consolation semis, 3^rd/5^th/7^th place matches) take place beginning at 9 a.m. MT and the national championship finals beginning Saturday night at 6 p.m. MT. 

Live bracket updates and results are available on FloWrestling, while live streams of the tournament will be available on ESPN+ to all existing subscribers. 

The New Nationals
It will be a historic occasion as the 2026 championships are the first in the sport's history to be officially run and sanctioned by the NCAA. Team champions, individual champions and All-Americans will have extra meaning this year as the "first" of their kind in the sport's NCAA era. 

With the change comes a different bracketing format that more closely resembles the men's NCAA tournament. Many of the changes already occurred during the regional tournaments, as the qualification process changed from eight regions sending four wrestlers each for a 32-person field at nationals to, starting this year, six regions sending three wrestlers apiece for an 18-person field. 

The smaller field makes CSC's three national qualifiers even more impressive, as CSC's previous program record is four from the 32-wrestler-per-weight era. Additionally, the Eagles were able to place three wrestlers into the national field despite sharing a region with national title frontrunner McKendree, who was one of three schools to send the maximum 10 qualifiers to the national tournament and took up 10 of the region's 30 qualifying spots by themselves.

Looking Back
Vollendroff, Cadden and Peters all finished third at their respective weights at the NCAA Region VI Tournament hosted by Lindenwood University in Missouri to punch tickets to nationals on February 22. The Eagles were a perfect 3-0 in winner-take-all matches for national qualification, with all three winning 3^rd/4^thplace matches that saw the winner advance and the loser miss out. 

RECAP: Three Eagles Punch Tickets to NCAA Nationals

Chadron State finished sixth out of 15 programs in the team standings with 67 total points, behind a top five of McKendree (199.5), Simon Fraser (115), Colorado Mesa (113), Fort Hays State (106.5), and William Jewell (70.5). Chadron State edged out hosts Lindenwood (65.5) and RMAC rivals Adams State and Texas Woman's, who were eighth and ninth.

National/Conference Storylines
Barring a series of surprises, the team title race will be between McKendree, Iowa and North Central (Ill.). Those programs– ranked No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 respectively entering the tournament – are the three schools that qualified the maximum 10 wrestlers for the national tournament (one at each weight class). 

Iowa is the reigning back-to-back champion from 2024 and 2025, but McKendree (who three-peated in 2020, 2021 and 2022) has four weight class top seeds at this year's tournament compared to three for the Hawkeyes. North Central (the 2023 champions) beat both Iowa and McKendree to win this year's NWCA National Duals tournament but has just one top seed in the tournament format this weekend (Grand Valley State and Lehigh also have one No. 1 seed each). 

Some of the most decorated wrestlers competing this weekend include Iowa's Kennedy Blades, a 2024 Olympic silver medalist at 160 pounds, McKendree's Cam Guerin, who is seeking to become a five-time national champion at 131, and Iowa's Kylie Welker, who is seeking to three-peat as a national champ at 180 pounds.

Three RMAC schools will be represented at nationals – Chadron State with three wrestlers, Simon Fraser with six and Colorado Mesa with four. 

Four RMAC wrestlers will enter the weekend with a pre-tournament seed (8 of 18 are given seeds at each weight). They are Colorado Mesa's Mia Zuniga (No. 3 at 103 pounds), Lorianna Piestewa (No. 7 at 124) and Jayleen Sekona (No. 6 at 207) plus Simon Fraser's Liv Wieber (No. 7 at 145).

CSC Wrestler Previews
Brianna Vollendroff
Vollendroff, a senior from Oroville, California, authored the biggest moment of the 2025-26 season so far when she became Chadron State's first RMAC champion in program history at 103 pounds. Vollendroff also took home tournament wins at the Minot State Open and the Bob Smith Fort Hays Open, culminating in an RMAC Wrestler of the Week honor on December 9. 

Vollendroff has done well at steadily improving in every season of her career. She qualified for nationals for the first time as a junior in 2025 and progressed from finishing fifth in the RMAC in 2024 to third in 2025 prior to winning the conference in 2026. In her first taste of nationals last season, Vollendroff had to face the No. 1 wrestler in the country in the first round, but won one consolation match and ultimately finished 1-2. 

In this year's bracket, Vollendroff has a first-round matchup against No. 6 seeded Trinity Pendergrass of Quincy (21-11). Her second-round bout will come against either Aaliyah Payne-Parris of Sacred Heart (24-10) or No. 3-seeded Mia Zuniga of Colorado Mesa (21-6), who did not compete at the RMAC Championships that Vollendroff won and later beat Vollendroff head-to-head in a dual. Vollendroff's lone loss at regionals came to McKendree's Heather Crull, who is seeded No. 1 in the 103-pound bracket.

Vollendroff is unranked by the NWCA (who ranks 10 wrestlers per weight), but has been given a No. 9 national ranking by The Open Mat (who ranked 18 wrestlers per weight this week). Vollendroff has a 30-7 record this season.

Piper Cadden
Cadden, a former NCWWC Regional Champion who went 2-2 at nationals last season with Fort Hays State, has made it back to nationals in her first season with Chadron State. Cadden has placed third in each of the past three tournaments she has competed in – the CSC Women's Open, the RMAC Championship and the NCAA regional tournament. 

Last season at nationals, Cadden defeated the No. 7 seed in the first round and won her first two matches before dropping the next two, including a quarterfinal to the No. 2 seed. 

This year, Cadden has a first-round match against No. 5 seed Abigal Mozden of Mount Union (41-2). Her next bout will be against either Pitt-Johnstown's Makayla Paclib (24-4) or Iowa freshman and No. 4 seed Karlee Brooks (33-4). Cadden's lone loss at the regional tournament came to 2021-24 national champion Cam Guerin, who is the No. 1 seed in the bracket and a potential semifinal opponent.

Cadden is unranked by the NWCA and has a No. 15 national ranking by The Open Mat. The Gilbert, Arizona native will enter nationals with a 22-10 record. 

Esther Peters
Esther Peters backed up her breakout freshman campaign with another solid sophomore season. Despite missing time early, the McKinney, Texas native won tournament titles at the Bob Smith Fort Hays Open and the Eagle Women's Open while placing third at RMACs and NCAA regionals. Peters rallied from a first-round regional loss to Minot State's Aniya Herbin to win four consecutive matches to claim third, including a win over No. 8-ranked Julia Richey of Simon Fraser to knock the Red Leafs wrestler out of nationals.

Chadron State's returning All-American will be one of five returning All-Americans in the field alongside McKendree's Tristan Kelly (1^st in 2025), Presbyterian's Maria Aiono (6^th in 2025), Colorado Mesa's Jayleen Sekona (three-time All-American, missed 2025 season) and Grand Valley State's Sabrina Nauss (2^nd at 180 pounds in 2025). 

The bracket provides a fascinating first-round matchup for Peters against No. 4 seed Rewa Chebabo of Wartburg. Last season, Peters defeated Chebabo in the "blood round" at the national tournament, which reduces the field from 12 down to the eight All-Americans, but the Wartburg wrestler has a strong 24-2 record this season. Peters's second match will be against either Felician's Talisha Lewis (18-4) or Iowa's Katja Osteen (22-1), the No. 5 seed. Osteen beat out teammate Jaycee Foeller, last year's national runner-up at 207, to be Iowa's 207-pound representative. 

Peters, unranked in the NWCA's top 10, is ranked No. 11 nationally by The Open Mat's latest rankings. She will enter nationals with an 18-6 record.

Coach's Corner
Head coach Sammy de Seriere is in his first season at the helm of the Eagle program after spending two seasons as CSC's lead assistant coach. He is the third-ever women's wrestling coach at Chadron State. 

In his two years on staff at CSC, De Seriere has contributed to the Eagles qualifying eight wrestlers to the NCWWC National Championships across 2024 and 2025. He worked closely with Esther Peters, who became Chadron State's women's wrestling's first-ever All-American last season and, like de Seriere, is a heavyweight. 

De Seriere began his coaching career in 2022-23 as a volunteer assistant for his alma mater, the men's wrestling program at Western Colorado. Overlapping with Summers, then a Mountaineers assistant coach, de Seriere helped Western place fourth nationally at the Division II National Championships during his lone season on staff, the program's first team trophy in 19 years. 

As a student-athlete, de Seriere competed for Western Colorado for five years at heavyweight, once finishing in sixth place in Super Region VI. A strong student, de Seriere was a three-time Dean's List selection and earned Honorable Mention All-RMAC, RMAC All-Academic Honor Roll and NCAA Division II Scholar All-America honors as a senior.