2025-26 Preseason Poll & Team (.pdf) | Schedule
In yet another vote with the slimmest of margins, Hawai’i has been selected to win the 2025-26 Big West women’s basketball crown in a vote of The Big West’s 11 head coaches. It is the fourth consecutive season that the Rainbow Wahine have landed atop the preseason voting.   
 

Hawai’i received 91 total points and four first-place votes after last year’s regular-season championship. UC Irvine, picked to finish second in the polling in consecutive seasons, landed just one point shy of UH, compiling 90 points with four first-place votes. UC Davis and UC San Diego are slotted in third and fourth, also earning the top nods on the ballot in what looks to be a four-team race to the crown. 
 

Five of the seven Preseason All-Big West Team selections play for the top quartet, with Hawai’i the only team to record a pair of picks. Typically a six-person team, ties in the voting warranted a seventh slot be awarded, also showcasing the projected parity in not only the team predictions but the expected individual play across The Big West.  

Last season, UH finished the campaign with a 22-10 overall record and a 16-4 mark in Big West action. After falling in the semifinal round of the 2025 Big West Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by Credit Union 1 to eventual victors UC San Diego, the ’Bows saw themselves in the field of the NCAA’s WBIT for consecutive seasons and a fourth-straight national postseason. 

Hawai’i’s retooled roster features eight newcomers and seven returnees on a team with a decidedly international flair with 11 of 15 student-athletes hailing from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Italy. Two Rainbow Wahine find themselves on the Preseason All-Big West Team. Lone returning senior and Denver, Colo., native Imani Perez is coming off an All-Defensive team season as the hub of one of the stingiest defenses in the country as they limited opponents to 53.1 points on 33.5 percent shooting, both in the top 10 nationally. 

Perez is joined on the preseason team by sophomore center and reigning Big West Freshman of the Year Ritorya Tamilo. The Auckland, New Zealand, native finished the freshman campaign with 41 blocked shots to set the UH freshman program record. Coupled with 32 swats from Perez the Rainbow Wahine led The Big West with 4.41 blocks per game. 

Second in the polling is UC Irvine (21-10, 15-5 BW), coming off a fourth consecutive 20-win season. Hunter Hernandez earned distinction on the preseason team after a 2024-25 season that saw the guard lead the Anteaters in both points (13.1 ppg) and rebounds (5.5 rpg) to go along with 1.4 assists and 1.2 steals a night. Back from the All-Big West Team a season ago and one of two seniors on the squad, Hernandez will be joined by reigning Big West Best Sixth Player Summah Hanson (8.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg). Also seeing a bevy of student-athletes from abroad, this is the seventh-straight season with multiple international players on the UCI roster, with five countries represented. Shirel Nahum (Israel) and Despoina Baltzi (Greece) both played for their home countries in FIBA competition this summer. 

After a slight break in the tabulations, UC Davis again sees themselves listed at third in the preseason predictions with 83 points and one first-place vote. The Aggies (21-12, 13-7 BW) are coming off a runner-up finish in The Big West Championship after downing second-seeded UCI in the semifinal round last year at Lee’s Family Forum. The roster features six upperclassmen, including returning senior duo Megan Norris (11.0 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 1.6 bpg) and Nya Epps (8.4 ppg, 1.8 apg, 1.1 spg). Norris, a center from Menlo Park, Calif., earned the preseason team nod after an All-Big West second team season highlighted by finishing third in the conference in both blocking and rebounding averages in 2024-25.  

Fourth in the voting with the remaining two first-place votes is defending champion UC San Diego, compiling a total of 77 points. The Tritons (20-16, 13-7 BW) recorded their first 20-win season in the Division I era and represented the league in the First Four in the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. Junior forward/center Erin Condron was named to the Preseason All-Big West team after averaging 8.1 points and 4.7 rebounds off the bench. Condron will be joined by fellow upperclassmen in reigning Big West Newcomer of the Year Sabrina Ma (10.0 ppg, .350 3fg%, 3.7 rpg) and Gracie Gallegos (9.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg) as well as incoming transfer from UC Riverside and Big West Defensive Player of the Year Makayla Rose (9.2 ppg, 2.0 spg, 1.8 apg at UCR). 

Teams No. 5 through 7 in the voting are UC Santa Barbara (67 points), Long Beach State (57) and UC Riverside (51). UCSB’s Skylar Burke was named to the preseason team after an honorable mention season for The Big West’s Best Hustle Player winner. The senior guard from Couer d’Alene, Idaho, was second on the squad with 10.4 points per game to go along with Gaucho-bests of 6.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game. Rounding out the Preseason All-Big West Team is Shelley Duchemin of UC Riverside. The senior guard for the Highlanders led the team in scoring average at 10.5 points per game on .408 shooting from the field.  

Cal Poly (34 points), CSUN (27), Cal State Fullerton (20) and Cal State Bakersfield (14) round out the preseason prognostications. Should the predictions ring true, the Mustangs will hold the eighth and final spot in the bracket of the 2025 Big West Women’s Basketball Championship, presented by Credit Union 1. The league returns for the fifth-straight year inside Lee's Family Forum in Henderson, Nev., March 11-14, with the victor earning automatic entry into the national postseason field. 
 

Join Big West basketball media personalities Tracy Warren and Tammy Blackburn on The Field of 68’s season preview tomorrow, Friday, Oct. 17 from 2-5 p.m. PT. The duo will provide an inside look at the season with live head coach interviews and analysis of the Preseason Coaches’ Poll and Preseason All-Big West Team as all 11 programs prepare to tip off the season on Monday, Nov. 3.