UC Irvine Women's Tennis Releases 2026 Dual Match Schedule
December 12, 2025 | Women's Tennis
IRVINE, Calif. – UC Irvine women's tennis has officially released its schedule for the 2026 dual match season.
The Anteaters will start a 22-match slate at home against Houston on Jan. 16 before hosting Nevada, another non-conference opponent, on Jan. 18. It will be Houston's first time in program history playing at UC Irvine.
After starting the season with two home matches, UC Irvine will hit the road for a four-match away stretch against Santa Clara (Feb. 7), UC Davis (Feb. 8), Chapman (Feb. 12) and Cal State Fullerton (Feb. 16). The UC Davis matchup will serve as the Anteaters' Big West conference play opener.
UCI will then return home and play back-to-back matches against programs from the West Coast Conference, taking on Portland (Feb. 20) and Pacific (Feb. 21). After the back-to-back, the Anteaters continue non-conference play against Occidental away on Feb. 26.
UC Irvine opens March in Irvine with a matchup against Bowling Green on March 2, starting a six-match homestand for the Anteaters where UCI will also face off against Oakland (March 4), Seton Hall (March 5), Colorado State (March 7), Richmond (March 10) and Big West Opponent UC Riverside (March 23). The matches against Bowling Green, Seton Hall, Colorado State and Richmond will mark the first time UCI has hosted each program.
The Anteaters will close March by flying to Hawai'i for an away match on March 27.
UCI then finishes its regular season slate in April, opening the month with a four-match homestand against Hope International (April 1), Cal State Northridge (April 4) UC Santa Barbara (April 11) and playing its senior day match against Cal Poly on April 12.
A two-match road trip at Long Beach State (April 18) and UC San Diego (April 19) closes the UC Irvine regular season.
After finishing its regular season, UC Irvine will look to make an appearance at the Big West Championships, scheduled for April 22-25, 2026 at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, Calif.
FROM HEAD COACH ELIZABETH FERRIS SMITH
"We are coming off a busy and strong fall campaign that will no doubt help us prepare for a very exciting dual match season. We are fortunate to welcome 13 solid teams to our home courts. Nevada, Portland and Pacific are teams we haven't competed against lately, but will be familiar opponents. Seton Hall, Richmond, Colorado State, Houston and Bowling Green are high-level opponents new to our courts. Two big matches that we are looking forward to are Davis and Hawaii. We had two heartbreaking losses to them last season but we will have one last chance at them on their home courts as Big West opponents. Our last several matches of the season will be a tough conference slate with Cal Poly as our senior day and Long Beach State and UC San Diego on the road before Championship play begins. The team is excited about our strong schedule and we can't want to hit the courts in mid-January!"
