BOSTON—UC San Diego women's basketball opens the 2026-27 season at No. 5 in the Preseason Mid-Major Top 25®, as announced Thursday by the organization.
The Tritons earned one first-place vote in the preseason poll. Now in its' 17th season, the CollegeInsider.com Women's Mid-Major Top 25® is voted on by 31 Division I coaches. James Madison head coach Sean O'Regan is the chairman of the voting panel this season.
The two-time defending Big West Champions will open the season on Monday at Washington, with tip-off slated for 11 a.m.
In 2025-26, UC San Diego went 24-9 overall and finished 17-3 in Big West play for a share of their first regular season conference title. Head coach
Heidi VanDerveer's squad went on to win the Big West Championship as the No. 2 Seed to become back-to-back tournament champions and punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season. UC San Diego is just the second team in NCAA Division I women's basketball to make the tournament in its first two seasons of postseason eligibility after reclassifying from Division II.
UC San Diego will return six Tritons from the 2025-26 championship squad, including All-Big West honorees
Erin Condron (First Team),
Lev Feiman (All-Freshman),
Dymonique Maxie (Honorable Mention) and
Rosa Smith (Honorable Mention).
Condron, Feiman and Smith all earned a spot on the All-Big West Preseason Team earlier this month and the Tritons were picked to finish first in the Big West Preseason Coaches' Poll.
To view the complete Mid-Major Preseason Poll,
click here.
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.
