WAC WBB2526 Release Week 1

TIME TO TIPOFF THE 2025-26 WAC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SEASON
The 2025-26 WAC women’s basketball season begins November 3 with six teams hitting the court on Monday. UT Arlington will start its season on Tuesday, Nov. 4 at Houston. Each team will play at least two games in week one, with at least one home game besides Utah Valley who will play against CSU Bakersfield and LMU on the road. All seven members will compete in the WAC Basketball Tournament at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas in March 2026 as the WAC will crown a new regular season and tournament champion.
 
ABILENE CHRISTIAN PICKED AS WAC PRESEASON FAVORITE
Abilene Christian has been tabbed the 2025-26 WAC women’s basketball preseason favorite by the league’s seven head coaches. The Wildcats received two first-place votes and 32 points total, just one point ahead of the second-place voted team, California Baptist, who received 31 points. ACU compiled a 22-13 overall record (9-7 WAC) last season and made it to the Super 16 in the 2025 Postseason WNIT where the Wildcats fell to Illinois State 78-68. Key returners for ACU include Payton Hull, Meredith Mayes, Emma Troxell, Erin Woodson and Breanna Davis.
 
ACU’S PAYTON HULL SELECTED AS WAC PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Abilene Christian’s junior guard Payton Hull was chosen as the 2025-26 WAC Preseason Player of the Year. Hull led the WAC last season in scoring with 19.0 points per game and notched the best free-throw percentage in the conference at 81.8 percent (72-of-88). Hull put up the second most 20-point games in the WAC despite missing 13 conference games due to injury. Hull recorded double-digit points in all but one of 22 games played last year and averaged 22.7 points in the three WNIT games ACU played in.
 
2025-26 PRESEASON ALL-WAC TEAM
Joining Hull on the Preseason All-WAC Team is her Wildcat teammate Meredith Mayes, California Baptist’s Khloe Lemon, Tarleton State’s Jakoriah Long and Utah Valley’s Amanda Barcello. Mayes notched the best field goal percentage in WAC play at 63.4 percent (90-of-142) and led in offensive rebounds (60) in conference play. Lemon compiled the best scoring average in WAC play at 19.07 points per game and tied a WAC record of 11 three-point field goals made in a game against Utah Valley last season (1/11). Long led the Texans in scoring with 13.3 points per game and was fourth in the conference in three-point field goals made during WAC play (39). Barcello tied for the sixth most total three-point field goals made all last season in the WAC with 55 and had two perfect games shooting beyond the arc: 6-of-6 vs Utah Tech (2/19) and 4-of-4 vs CSU Bakersfield (11/16).
 
NOTABLE WAC RETURNERS
Some other notable key returners in the WAC include: Filipa Barros (CBU), Emma Johansson (CBU), CeCe Legaspi (CBU), Grace Schmidt (CBU), Ava Uhrich (SUU), Gia Adams (TSU), Kendal Robinson (UTA), Nya Threatt (UTA), Chardonnay Hartley (UTU), Ellie Taylor (UTU), Kylee Mabry (UVU), Halle Nelson (UVU) and Tessa Chaney (UVU).