The 2025–26 UC San Diego Tritons women's basketball team represented the University of California, San Diego during the 2025–26 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Tritons, led by 14th-year head coach Heidi VanDerveer, played their home games at LionTree Arena in La Jolla, California as members of the Big West Conference.
This was the second year the team were eligible for the NCAA tournament, and the second consecutive season they made the tournament, winning the Big West tournament.
Previous season The Tritons finished the 2024–25 season 20–16, 13–7 in Big West play, to finish in a tie for third place. They received the 4 seed in the Big West tournament, where they won over Cal Poly in the quarterfinals, Hawaii in the semifinals and UC Davis in the championship game to win the Big West championship and clinch the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. It marked UC San Diego's first NCAA D-I tournament appearance. They were seeded as the No.16 seed in the Spokane 1 region, where they fell to Southern in the First Four.
Offseason Departures DeparturesNameNumberPos.HeightYearHometown Reason for departure Grace Talbot 2 G 5' 7" Junior Littleton, CO Graduated Sumayah Sugapong 3 G 5' 7" Sophomore San Diego, CA Transferred to Arizona Meaali'i Amosa 13 F 6' 1" Senior Garden Grove, CA Graduated Izzy Forsyth 20 F 6' 0" Senior Vancouver, BC Transferred to Hawaii Eri Blithikioti 23 G 5' 11" Sophomore Athens, Greece Transferred to Northern Arizona Kayanna Spriggs 24 F 6' 2" Senior San Diego, CA Graduated Parker Montgomery 32 G 5' 7" Graduate Student Porter Ranch, CA Graduated Emma Svaboda 33 C 6' 3" Senior La Quinta, CA Graduated
Incoming transfers Incoming transfersNameNumberPos.HeightYearHometown Previous school Makayla Rose 4 G 5' 7" Senior Roseville, CA UC Riverside Dymonique Maxie 10 G 5' 8" Junior Hayward, CA Nevada
Recruits 2025 recruiting class
Preseason Big West Conference Preseason Poll The Big West Conference released its preseason coaches' poll on October 16, 2025. The Tritons were predicted to finish fourth in the conference with 77 points and two first-place votes.
+Big West Preseason Poll Place Team Points 1 91 (4) 2 90 (4) 3 83 (1) 4 UC San Diego 77 (2) 5 61 6 57 7 51 8 34 9 27 10 20 11 14
Big West Preseason All-Big West Team Junior forward/center Erin Condron was named to the preseason All-Big West Team.
Player SchoolSkylar BurkeUC Santa BarbaraErin CondronUC San DiegoShelley DucheminUC RiversideHunter HernandezUC IrvineMegan NorrisUC DavisImani Perez Hawai'iRitorya Tamilo Hawai'i
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Regular season
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References