After reigning supreme in consecutive conference postseasons, UC San Diego has been selected to repeat as champions in the 2026-27 Big West women’s basketball preseason poll, as voted upon by the league’s 12 head coaches. This marks the first, and only, time the Tritons will sit atop the preseason listings.
UC San Diego received 10 first place votes and 120 total points in the polling to top defending co-regular-season champion UC Irvine in the listings for the top spot. The Anteaters occupy second with 108 points and one first place vote. Third place belongs to UC Santa Barbara, who tallied 94 points to edge out incoming member California Baptist by one as the 2025-26 WAC double champions picked up 93 points in the listings. Fellow newcomer Sacramento State is next in the vote-getting with 88 points and the final first place nod.
All seven Preseason All-Big West Team selections play for the top quintet, with UC San Diego recording a trio of selections and Sacramento State pulling in a pair. Typically a six-person team, ties in the voting warranted a seventh slot be awarded for consecutive seasons.
Last year, the Tritons (24-9, 17-3 BW) made their way through The Big West bracket as the No. 2 seed after tying for second in the regular season standings, defeating fourth-seeded Hawai’i in the Rainbow Wahine’s swan song, 60-48. UCSD is just the second Division I women’s basketball team to make the NCAA Championship field in its first two seasons of eligibility after reclassifying from Division II.
Six Tritons return from the championship squad in their final season as a member of The Big West, headlined by preseason picks Erin Condron, Rosa Smith and Lev Feiman. Condron, a senior forward/center from Woodend, Victoria, Australia, is coming off a first team All-Big West season with multiple UCSD single-game and season records after averaging a team-best 15.6 points and 8.5 rebounds with 1.7 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.1 steals per game. Condron led the league in field goal percentage, connecting at a clip of 52.1 percent. This is Condron’s second straight preseason nod.
The guard duo of Smith and Feiman make the preseason listings for the first time after honorable mention campaigns in 2025-26. Smith, a graduate student from Kirkland, Wash., averaged 10.9 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.0 steals for the Tritons in 2025-26. Smith connected on 1.8 three pointers per game with 57 total swishes from distance a year ago. Set for a sophomore season for the Tritons, Feiman is looking to grow on the 6.5 points and 1.9 rebounds provided in 15.3 points off the bench for
Heidi VanDerveer’s squad.
The Anteaters (26-7, 17-3 BW) land in second in the voting after a record-setting season in 2025-26 after setting school records in overall wins (26), conference wins (17) and win streak (16) as well as several statistical categories. UC Irvine won a second Big West regular season title in the last four years tying atop the leaderboard with the Tritons but fell short in an overtime loss to Hawai’i in the semifinals. Losing Big West Player of the Year
Hunter Hernandez, UCI will have big shoes to fill with reigning Big West Coach of the Year
Tamara Inoue focusing on balanced scoring, bench depth and the same defensive identity the ‘Eaters are known to exhibit on the court.
After a gap in the points between the top two teams, UC Santa Barbara (20-10, 12-8 BW) is slotted in third in the voting, up three places from their final seeding in last year’s postseason bracket. The Gauchos return one of the league’s sharpshooters from the outside in Preseason All-Big West Team selection
Zoe Borter. The senior forward from Beaverton, Ore., led The Big West and was 26
th in NCAA Division I in three-point percentage connecting at a 40.9 percent clip with 65 triples on the year (2.2 per game). As a team, UCSB swished 8.8 threes per game, good for 13
th nationally, while holding opponents to 26.0 percent shooting from beyond the arc which rated eighth in the country.
Just one point behind UCSB is California Baptist (23-11, 15-3 WAC), fresh off a NCAA Championship appearance as the WAC title holders where the Lancers lost to eventual national champions No. 1 seed UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in the first round. CBU is represented on the preseason team by WAC Freshman of the Year
Lauren Olsen, who set the school freshman scoring record with 502 points to average 14.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game a year ago. The product of Douglas, Wyo., finished third in the conference in scoring average in a first collegiate season and is one of only three players returning who saw the court for meaningful minutes for the Lancers in 2025-26.
Sacramento State (15-8, 8-10 Big Sky) rounds out the top five in the preseason listings and sees the final two members of the preseason team. The Hornets made the semifinals of the Big Sky Tournament a season ago, and returns seven letterwinners from the squad including senior guard and Preseason All-Big West Team member
Natalie Picton. In a first year at Sacramento State after transferring from Big Sky rival Montana State, Picton, a senior from Welland, Ontario, Canada, finished second on the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game while averaging 3.7 rebounds and a team-best 2.2 steals per game. Joining Picton on the preseason team is Kansas State transfer
Jenessa Cotton. The junior forward hails from Orange, Calif., and returns closer to home after posting averages of 4.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting .422 (49-for-116) from the field for the Wildcats.
Teams No. 6 through 8 in the voting are final new face to the league Utah Valley (70 points),followed by UC Riverside (59) and CSUN (53). Should the predictions ring true, the Matadors would hold the eighth and final place in the
2027 Credit Union 1 Big West Women’s Basketball Championship bracket. Then, Cal Poly (35) follows in ninth before the pairing of Cal State Bakersfield and Long Beach State (25), with Cal State Fullerton (22) rounding out the listings.
Big West basketball media personalities Tammy Blackburn and Tracy Warren tipped off the month on
The Field of 68’s season preview with an inside look at what to expect in the new-look league in 2026-27 with head coach interviews and analysis with each head coach. Rewatch the show as the season nears now, and tune in to The Big West’s social media channels beginning on Monday, Oct. 19 as each team is highlighted as the conference counts down to Monday, Nov. 2, when regular season play commences around the country.
| 2026-27 Big West Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Poll |
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First-place votes in parentheses
| 2026-26 All-Big West Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches' Team |
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Woodend, Victoria, Australia
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