California Irvine Athletics

IRVINE, Calif. – For the second straight year, UC Irvine was selected to finish first in this year's annual Big West Preseason Poll.

The Anteaters received 44 points and three of the eight first-place votes with the others going to Hawai'i who received one with their 42 points at second place and four votes to Long Beach State who sits third (41 points). The rest of the preseason poll has UC San Diego fourth, UC Davis fifth, CSUN sixth, seventh for UC Santa Barbara, and Cal State Fullerton eighth.

UCI also learned their national ranking on Wednesday as announced by the CWPA. After finishing eighth nationally in 2024, UCI starts the new season tied sixth with Princeton. Hawai'i (No. 5) and Long Beach State (No. 7) round out the Big West teams in the top 10.

Senior center Nioka Thomas placed on the Big West All-Preseason team for the second straight season.
 
Thomas, who sat out of the 2024 campaign to train with the Australian national team, had a standout season in 2023 that led to All-American Second Team and All-Big West First Team honors. The center scored 53 goals on 94 shots to go along with nine hat-tricks while adding eight assists, nine steals, and three field blocks. 
 
The 2025 campaign for head coach Dan Klatt and the Anteaters begins in Riverside, Calif. at the Lancer Invitational tournament taking on T-No. 25 Pomona-Pitzer and No. 3 USC.