Cal Poly Women's Tennis Releases 2026 Spring Schedule
12/9/2025 11:45:00 AM | Women's Tennis
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — Highlighted by nine home matches and three duals against opponents that advanced past the First Round of the NCAA Tournament a year ago, the Cal Poly women’s tennis program announced its full 2026 spring schedule Tuesday.
The 22-match slate features a five-match homestand in February, 13 nonconference matchups, nine conference duals and an Alumni Weekend showdown with Blue-Green rival UC Santa Barbara to wrap up regular season play. The Mustangs are set to take on three teams that competed in the 2025 NCAA Tournament and advanced past the First Round in Boise State, Pepperdine and UCSB.
We set out to build a schedule this spring that would test us both mentally and physically, and prepare us to contend for another Big West Championship and trip to the NCAA Tournament, and I believe we’ve done that. We’re excited about the group we have this season and can’t wait to get things started back up in January.Ellie Edles Williams, Cal Poly Women's Tennis Head Coach
This spring under the leadership of Williams, Cal Poly is looking to build off yet another sensational season for the program. In 2025, the Mustangs earned a spot in the Big West Championship match for a program-record fifth consecutive season. Cal Poly finished with an impressive 19-5 record, the second most wins in a season in the program's Division I history, the fifth most all-time and the most since going 20-7 in 2003. The Mustangs also achieved a national ranking of 38th during the season, tied for the second highest ranking in the program’s history and the best in 14 years. Cal Poly ended the year ranked No. 59 in the final ITA poll, the team’s third highest ranking to end a season and best since 2011.
The spring season officially gets underway for the Mustangs when they travel to Cal, who made it to the NCAA Tournament Third Round a year ago, for the annual three-day Cal Winter Invite on Jan. 16-18 in Berkeley.
The Mustangs kick off the dual portion of their season in San Diego on Jan. 24 when they take on BYU in a neutral-site match at University of San Diego’s Hogan Tennis Center. The following day, Cal Poly will take on San Diego.
The Mustangs open Big West play and their 2026 home schedule on Sunday, Feb. 1 at 11 a.m. when the team hosts UC Davis, kicking off a five-match homestand for the program. The following weekend, Cal Poly welcomes Boise State to the Ronca Tennis Center on Friday, Feb. 6, at noon and battles Saint Mary’s at home on Sunday, Feb. 8, at 2 p.m. Last year, Boise State won its first Mountain West Championship in program history and defeated No. 22 Baylor in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. This year’s meeting between the Mustangs and Broncos will mark the first in 30 years.
Cal Poly caps its five-match homestand with a doubleheader on Tuesday, Feb. 17, taking on Big West foe UC Riverside at 10 a.m. and Fresno State at 2 p.m.
The Mustangs then hit the road for six straight matches, facing LMU on Feb. 21, CSUN on Feb. 22, Santa Clara on Feb. 27, San Jose State on Feb. 28, San Diego State on March 6 and UC San Diego on March 7.
After over three weeks away from home, Cal Poly returns to the Ronca Tennis Center on Thursday, March 12, to host Princeton at 5 p.m. under the lights. It will be the first all-time meeting between the Mustangs and Tigers.
On March 21, Cal Poly heads to Malibu to face Pepperdine to begin a three-match road swing across five days during spring break. The Waves captured the West Coast Conference title a year ago and took down No. 37 Wake Forest in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament. The stretch of road matches for the team continues on March 24 in Texas when the Mustangs travel to UT Arlington for the first time before taking on TCU in Fort Worth on March 25.
The following week, the Mustangs welcome a pair of Big West foes to San Luis Obispo, hosting Long Beach State on Tuesday, March 31, and Hawai’i on Thursday, April 2, with both matches starting at noon. Cal Poly defeated the Rainbow Wahine 4-2 in the Big West semifinals a season ago.
Cal Poly travels to Southern California to take on Cal State Fullerton on April 11 and UC Irvine on April 12 in its final two regular season road matches.
On Saturday, April 18, the Mustangs host arguably their most crucial match of the season when they battle Blue-Green rival UC Santa Barbara at 1 p.m. at the Ronca Tennis Center. The Senior Day match is part of the program’s Alumni Weekend festivities and is a rematch of last year’s thrilling Big West Championship match. The Gauchos earned a narrow 4-2 win over the Mustangs in the conference championship final and went on to defeat Rice 4-3 in the NCAA First Round.
In addition, the Mustangs will host two neutral-site matches at the Ronca Tennis Center this season. Cal Poly hosts a neutral site match between Boise State and Saint Mary’s at 10 a.m. on Feb. 7, and a showdown between Fresno State and Princeton at noon on March 10.
The 2026 Big West Championships will once again be held at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, taking place on April 22-26. The 10-team tournament will follow the exact same format as last year with the top two teams in the Big West regular season standings receiving a double bye to the conference tournament semifinals, something the Mustangs earned last season as the No. 2 seed. The No. 3-10 seeds in the tournament will have to win four matches in four days to claim the Big West Championship. The victor of the tourney will earn the Big West's automatic berth to the 2026 NCAA Tournament, which begins with the First Round on May 1-2.
Cal Poly returns seven players from last year’s team — seniors Kennedy Buntrock, Sarah MacCallum, and Alexandra Ozerets, redshirt junior Amy Leather, junior Natalie Lynch and sophomore Jessica MacCallum. The Mustangs have just four newcomers this season — junior Candela Aparisi (a transfer from Oregon) and freshmen Tia Bonita Jakupovic-Kljako, Aspen Chung and Olivia Mlouk.
The star-studded core of four returning 2025 All-Big West honorees is highlighted by Buntrock (All-Big West First Team, doubles) and Jessica MacCallum, who earned All-Big West Honorable Mention recognition in doubles and posted a remarkable 19-3 dual singles record a year ago.
Cal Poly has recorded 13 or more victories in each of the last five seasons, a program record. Since Williams took over as head coach in the summer of 2022, the Mustangs have seen unprecedented success, posting an impressive 46-25-1 record across the past three seasons.
