Mustang Women's Tennis Announces 2025 Spring Schedule
12/16/2024 5:00:00 PM | Women's Tennis
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Highlighted by 13 home matches, the Cal Poly women’s tennis team announced its complete 2025 spring schedule Monday.
The 22-match slate for the defending Big West champions features a seven-match homestand stretching from late January to late February, 13 nonconference matchups and nine conference duals. The Mustangs are slated to take on three teams that competed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament in Arizona, Grand Canyon and Sacramento State.
Cal Poly is looking to build off one of its most successful seasons in program history this spring under third-year head coach Ellie Edles Williams. Last year, the Mustangs charged through the conference tournament as the No. 5 seed to capture their second Big West Championship in program history and first since 2003. The triumph allowed Cal Poly to punch its ticket to the NCAA Championships for the third time in school history and first time since 2011.
The Mustangs get their spring campaign underway on Jan. 10-12 at the annual Cal Winter Invite in Berkeley. Cal Poly kicks off the dual portion of its season a week later in the desert when the team takes on Northern Arizona on Jan. 19 in a neutral-site match hosted by Arizona in Tucson. The following day on Jan. 20, the Mustangs will face the Wildcats, who finished last season ranked No. 39 in the country and fell to No. 18 Oklahoma in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.
Cal Poly, who hosted its first ever fall tournament on Nov. 8-10, will officially play its first dual in front of the new state-of-the-art Comerford Pavilion at noon on Friday, Jan. 24, when the team welcomes Montana State to San Luis Obispo for its home opener. The Mustangs were set to host the Bobcats last year, but the match was canceled due to weather. It will mark the first meeting between the two schools in 26 years. Cal Poly caps off its home-opening weekend by hosting Santa Clara on Sunday, Jan. 26.
The Mustangs host Washington State on Friday, Feb. 7, Fresno State on Sunday, Feb. 9, San Jose State on Sunday, Feb. 16, Gonzaga on Friday, Feb. 21, and Grand Canyon on Sunday, Feb. 23 to complete a seven-match homestand spanning nearly a month. GCU might be the toughest of those nonconference opponents during that home stretch as the Antelopes won the Western Athletic Conference title in 2024 to advance to the NCAA Tournament and finished the season ranked No. 57 in the nation. Cal Poly came up short to Grand Canyon 4-0 in Phoenix last season.
Cal Poly hits the road for the first time in over a month on Feb. 28 to face defending Big Sky champion Sacramento State before traveling to UC Davis on March 1 for its Big West season opener. The Mustangs cap a four-match road swing with matches at UC Riverside on March 7 and Long Beach State on March 8.
Cal Poly returns to the friendly confines of the Ronca Tennis Center on Monday, March 10, to host Loyola Marymount before battling CSUN on Sunday, March 16 in its Big West home opener. The Mustangs welcome a first-time opponent to SLO on Friday, March 21, for their final home nonconference match when the squad takes on Columbia, who was ranked No. 45 in last season’s final ITA poll.
The island of O'ahu will be calling the Mustangs’ name when they head to Hawai’i to face Division II Hawai’i Pacific on March 25 and the Rainbow Wahine on March 26.
The Mustangs finish off their 2025 home schedule by hosting three straight conference matches. Cal Poly squares off against UC San Diego on Friday, April 4, Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, April 12, and UC Irvine on Sunday, April 13. Last year, Cal Poly defeated No. 6 seed Cal State Fullerton 4-3 to claim the Big West Championship.
Cal Poly travels to Blue-Green rival UC Santa Barbara on April 19 for its final regular season match. A year ago, the Mustangs took down top-seeded and 55th-ranked UCSB 4-2 in the Big West semifinals to secure a spot in the conference championship match for the fourth straight year.
In addition, the Mustangs will host three neutral-site matches at the Ronca Tennis Center this season. Cal Poly hosts a neutral site match between Montana State and Santa Clara on Jan. 25, a showdown between Washington State and Fresno State on Feb. 8 and a battle between Gonzaga and Grand Canyon on Feb. 22.
Capping off an historic season with another milestone ??
— Cal Poly Women’s Tennis (@CalPolyWTennis) May 22, 2024
Cal Poly checks in at No. 68 in the final @ita_tennis team rankings, the program’s highest national ranking to end a season since 2021!!#RideHigh???? pic.twitter.com/CDjnLokyTx
For the second time in program history, the Mustangs are Big West Champions ??#RideHigh???? pic.twitter.com/invA7R7Ok4
— Cal Poly Women’s Tennis (@CalPolyWTennis) April 28, 2024
The 2025 Big West Championships will be contested on April 24-27 at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, the site of the Mustangs’ 2024 championship victory. With UC San Diego now eligible for postseason play, the format for this year’s tournament will be slightly different with the top two teams in the Big West regular season standings receiving a double bye to the conference tournament semifinals. The winner of the 10-team tournament will earn the Big West's automatic berth to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, which will begin on May 2-3.
Cal Poly returns eight of its 10 players from last year’s team that finished the season ranked No. 68 in the country and fell to No. 11 seed USC 4-0 in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. A pair of All-Big West honorees from 2024 are back in senior Peyton Dunkle (First Team singles & doubles) and senior Romane Mosse (Second Team singles). Senior Eliza Bates, juniors Kennedy Buntrock, Sarah MacCallum and Alexandra Ozerets, redshirt sophomore Amy Leather and sophomore Natalie Lynch make up the rest of Cal Poly’s returners. Freshmen Jessica MacCallum and Anushree Shekhera are the Mustangs’ two newcomers this season.
