2024–25 Western Athletic Conference women's basketball season

2024–25 WAC women's basketball season
2024–25 WAC women's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	9
TV partner(s)	ESPN, ESPN+
Regular season
WAC tournament
WAC women's basketball seasons
	← 2023–24 2025–26 →

2024–25 WAC women's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Grand Canyon	0	–	0	–	11	–	2	.846
Abilene Christian	0	–	0	–	10	–	4	.714
Utah Valley	0	–	0	–	8	–	4	.667
Tarleton	0	–	0	–	8	–	6	.571
UT Arlington	0	–	0	–	4	–	6	.400
Utah Tech	0	–	0	–	4	–	9	.308
California Baptist	0	–	0	–	3	–	11	.214
Seattle	0	–	0	–	2	–	10	.167
Southern Utah	0	–	0	–	2	–	10	.167

† 2025 WAC tournament winner As of December 21, 2024

The 2024–25 WAC women's basketball season began with practices in October followed by the start of the 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season in early November 2024. The conference began play in January 2025. This is the WAC's 63rd season of basketball. The WAC competed with nine teams due to two teams having left the conference since the prior season. UTRGV and Stephen F. Austin both joined the Southland Conference since the prior year.^[1] The WAC tournament will be held in March 2025 with all nine teams competing for the automatic bid to the 2025 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. The opening round will be held at Burns Arena in St. George, Utah with the remaining rounds at the Orleans Arena in the Las Vegas-area community of Paradise, Nevada.^[2] This was the last WAC season for both Grand Canyon and Seattle, which announced that they would join the West Coast Conference the following year.^[3]

Pre-season

WAC Media days

The WAC's 2024 women's basketball media day was held on October 16.^[4]

Men's Basketball Coaches Preseason Poll
Place	Team	Points	First place votes
1.	Grand Canyon	59	4
2.	California Baptist	58	4
3.	UT Arlington	53	1
4.	Abilene Christian	37	--
5.	Southern Utah	33	--
6.	Tarleton	28	--
7.	Utah Tech	24	--
8.	Utah Valley	17	--
9	Seattle U	15	--

WAC Preseason All-Conference

First Team

Name	School	Yr.	Pos.
Trinity San Antonio†	Grand Canyon	Senior	G
Payton Hull	Abilene Christian	Sophomore	G
Tiarra Brown	Grand Canyon	Graduate	G/F
Daylani Ballena	Southern Utah	Graduate	G
Avery Brittingham	UT Arlington	Fifth year	F

† Denotes Preseason Player of the Year

Regular season

Early season tournaments

Team	Tournament	Finish
Abilene Christian	FIU Thanksgiving Classic^[5] & Lobo Invitational^[6]	1st & 1st
California Baptist	FGCU Homewood Suites Classic^[7]	3rd
Grand Canyon	Talking Stick Resort Thanksgiving Classic & Have Fayth Christmas Classic^[8]	1st & 1st
Seattle U	Talking Stick Resort Thanksgiving Classic^[8]	2nd
Southern Utah	Nugget Classic^[9]	4th
Tarleton	Big Easy Classic^[10]	2nd
UT Arlington	N/A	---
Utah Tech	N/A	---
Utah Valley	USD Thanksgiving Classic^[11]	2nd

Conference USA-Western Athletic Conference Challenge

Date	Conference USA team	WAC team	Score	Location	Leader
November 4	UTEP	Tarleton	52–49	Don Haskins Center • El Paso, TX	CUSA (1–0)
November 7	New Mexico State	Utah Tech	85–63	Pan American Center • Las Cruces, NM	CUSA (2–0)
November 8	Florida International	Abilene Christian	76–73	Ocean Bank Convocation Center • Miami, FL	CUSA (2–1)
November 8	Middle Tennessee	Grand Canyon	57–47	Murphy Center • Murfreesboro, TN	CUSA (3–1)
November 9	Kennesaw State	Utah Valley	64–61	Convocation Center • Kennesaw, GA	CUSA (3–2)
	Jacksonville State	Southern Utah	77–58	Pete Mathews Coliseum • Jacksonville, FL	CUSA (4–2)
	Liberty	California Baptist	72–44	Liberty Arena • Lynchburg, VA	CUSA (5–2)
	Sam Houston	Seattle	69–57	Bernard Johnson Coliseum • Huntsville, TX	CUSA (6–2)
November 10	Louisiana Tech	UT Arlington	71–60	Thomas Assembly Center • Ruston, LA	CUSA (7–2)
November 21	Western Kentucky	Abilene Christian	68–64	Moody Coliseum • Abilene, TX	CUSA (8–2)
November 27	Liberty	Grand Canyon	79–50	Global Credit Union Arena • Phoenix, AZ	CUSA (8–3)
December 14	UTEP	Utah Tech	71–57	Burns Arena • St. George, UT	CUSA (9–3)
December 16	Sam Houston	Southern Utah	72–61	America First Event Center • Cedar City, UT	CUSA (10–3)
	Kennesaw State	Seattle	64–41	Redhawk Center • Seattle, WA	CUSA (11–3)
	Jacksonville State	Utah Valley	49–45	UCCU Center • Orem, UT	CUSA (11–4)
	New Mexico State	Tarleton	65–55	Wisdom Gym • Stephenville, TX	CUSA (11–5)
	Florida International	UT Arlington	72–56	College Park Center • Arlington, TX	CUSA (11–6)
December 17	Middle Tennessee	California Baptist	74–54	Fowler Events Center • Riverside, CA	CUSA (12–6)
WINNERS ARE IN BOLD. HOME TEAM IN ITALICS. Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game. Did not participate: none

Records against other conferences

2024–25 records against non-conference foes:

Regular season

Power Conferences & Gonzaga	Record
ACC	0–2
Big East	0–0
Big Ten	0–6
Big 12	3–9
Pac-12	0–0
SEC	0–2
Gonzaga	0–0
Power Conference Total	3–19

Other NCAA Division I Conferences	Record
America East	0–0
American	1–3
A-10	0–2
ASUN	0–1
Big Sky	4–3
Big South	0–0
Big West	4–3
CAA	1–0
C-USA	7–12
Horizon	1–0
Ivy League	0–1
MAAC	0–0
MAC	0–1
MEAC	0–0
MVC	0–0
Mountain West	2–6
NEC	0–1
OVC	0–0
Patriot League	0–0
SoCon	0–0
Southland	10–3
SWAC	2–0
Summit	1–1
Sun Belt	2–1
WCC (except Gonzaga)	1–5
Other Division I Total	36–43
Non-Division I Total	13–0
NCAA Division I Total	39–62

Record against ranked non-conference opponents

This is a list of games against ranked opponents only (rankings from the AP poll/Coaches poll):

Date	Visitor	Home	Score
November 18	Grand Canyon	#23 Oregon	L, 54–70
November 20	Tarleton	#4 Texas	L, 41–83
December 3	Cal Baptist	#6 USC	L, 52–94
December 11	Tarleton	#24 Nebraska	L, 50–63
December 18	Utah Tech	NR/#21 Baylor	L, 34–97

Team rankings are reflective of AP poll/Coaches poll when the game was played, not current or final ranking.

Rankings

		Improvement in ranking
		Drop in ranking
RV		Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25
NV		No votes received

		Pre	Wk 2	Wk 3	Wk 4	Wk 5	Wk 6	Wk 7	Wk 8
Abilene Christian	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Abilene Christian	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

California Baptist	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
California Baptist	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Grand Canyon	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Grand Canyon	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Seattle U	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Seattle U	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Southern Utah	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Southern Utah	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Tarleton	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Tarleton	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

UT Arlington	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
UT Arlington	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Utah Tech	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Utah Tech	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Utah Valley	AP	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV
Utah Valley	C	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV	NV

Head coaches

Coaching changes

No coaching changes were made during the offseason.

Coaches

Note: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season. Overall and WAC records are from time at current school.

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Seasons at school	Overall record	WAC record	WAC titles	NCAA tournaments
Abilene Christian	Julie Goodenough	Charleston Southern	13th	228–130 (.637)	138–75(.648)	2	1
California Baptist	Jarrod Olson	Florida Southern	13th	133-54 (.711)	76-26 (.745)	2	1
Grand Canyon	Molly Miller	Drury	5th	85-35 (.708)	50-18 (.735)	0	0
Seattle U	Skyler Young	Portland (assistant)	2nd	6-23 (.207)	6-14 (.300)	0	0
Southern Utah	Tracy Mason	St. Mary's (associate HC)	7th	84-87 (.491)	22-16 (.579)	1	1
Tarleton	Bill Brock	McLennan Community College	2nd	12-20 (.375)	7-13 (.350)	0	0
UT Arlington	Shereka Wright	Vanderbilt (associate HC)	5th	64-48 (.571)	41-27 (.603)	0	1
Utah Tech	JD Gustin	Weber State (assistant)	9th	48-47 (.505)	28-28 (.500)	0	0
Utah Valley	Dan Nielson	BYU (associate HC)	6th	57-81 (.413)	37-48 (.435)	0	1

Notes:

Overall and WAC records, conference titles, etc. are from time at current school and are through the end of the 2023–24 season.
Records and season totals only include time spent at Division I as head coach.
NCAA tournament appearances are from time at current school only.
NCAA Final Fours and Championship include time at other schools.

Post season

WAC tournament

The WAC tournament will be held in March 2025 with all nine teams competing for the automatic bid to the 2025 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The opening round will be held at Burns Arena in St. George, Utah with the remaining rounds at the Orleans Arena in the Las Vegas-area community of Paradise, Nevada.

NCAA tournament

Teams from the conference that were selected to participate: 0

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First round	Second round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
			–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	Bids	W-L (%):	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	TOTAL: 0–0 (–)

Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament

Number from the conference that were selected to participate: 0

Seed	School	First round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
		–	–	–	–
	W-L (%):	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	TOTAL: 0–0 (–)

Women's National Invitation Tournament

Number from the conference that were selected to participate: 0

Seed	School	First round	Second round	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Finals
		–	–	–	–	–
	W-L (%):	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	0–0 (–)	TOTAL: 0–0 (–)

Index to colors and formatting
WAC member won
WAC member lost

*Denotes overtime period

Awards and honors

Players of the week

Throughout the conference regular season, the WAC offices name a player of the week and a newcomer of the week each Monday.

Week	Player of the Week	School	Newcomer of the Week	School
November 11	Bella Earle	Abilene Christian	Danja Stafford Collins	Utah Valley
November 18	Alyssa Durazo-Frescas	Grand Canyon	Alyssa Durazo-Frescas	Grand Canyon
November 25	Chardonnay Hartley	Utah Tech	Aaliyah Ibarra	Utah Tech
December 2	Payton Hull	Abilene Christian	Taisiya Kozlova	Seattle
December 9	Trinity San Antonio	Grand Canyon	Koi Love	UT Arlington
December 16	Laura Erikstrup	Grand Canyon	Alyssa Durazo-Frescas	Grand Canyon
December 23	Payton Hull	Abilene Christian	Koi Love	UT Arlington

Totals per school - Players of the week

School	Player of the week	Freshman of the week	Total
Abilene Christian University	3		3
California Baptist University
Grand Canyon University	3	2	5
Seattle University		1	1
Southern Utah University
Tarleton State University
University of Texas at Arlington		2	2
Utah Tech University	1	1	2
Utah Valley University		1	1
Total	7	7	14

All-Americans

All-WAC

First team

Name	School

‡ WAC Player of the Year
‡‡ WAC Defensive Player of the Year

Second team

Name	School

All-Freshman team

Name	School

† Freshman of the Year

All-Defensive team

Name	School

‡WAC Defensive Player of the Year

Other awards

Sixth Woman of the Year:

Coach of the Year:

2025 WNBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	Team	School/club team
−	−				−

Home game attendance

Team	Stadium	Capacity	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5	Game 6	Game 7	Game 8	Game 9	Total	Average	% of Capacity
Abilene Christian	Moody Coliseum	3,600	652	2,207	709	624	348	728				5,268	878	24%
California Baptist	CBU Events Center	5,050	740	758	461	427	395	181				2,962	494	10%
Grand Canyon	GCU Arena	7,000	552	534	482	398	511	407	298	134	512	3,828	425	6%
Seattle U	Redhawk Center/Climate Pledge Arena	999/18,100^[12]	536	164	247	143						1,090	273	27%
Southern Utah	America First Event Center	5,300	355	369	349	266	201					1,540	308	6%
Tarleton State	Wisdom Gymnasium	3,000	840	677	927	581	676	527				4,228	705	23%
UT Arlington	College Park Center	7,000	1,161	256	901	734						3,052	763	11%
Utah Tech	Burns Arena	4,779	1,841	327	665	467	260	377	358			4,295	614	13%
Utah Valley	UCCU Center	8,500	539	636	457	474	381	422				2,909	485	6%
Total		62.329										29,172	4,944	14%

Bold – At or exceed capacity; capacity ratios for Seattle U computed based on smaller home arena; attendance is for regular season only

†Season high
‡Climate Pledge Arena
‡‡Bert Ogden Arena

References

^ "CONFIRMED: SFA returning to the Southland Conference". Dave Campbell's Texas Football. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
^ "Championship Format And Dates For 2025 Hercules Tires WAC Basketball Tournament Set". wacsports.com. October 15, 2024. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
^ "WCC to add Grand Canyon, Seattle in 2025-26". ESPN.com. May 10, 2024. Retrieved October 19, 2024.
^ "Grand Canyon Tabbed as 2024-25 WAC Women's Basketball Preseason Favorite". wacsports.com. November 2, 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2024.
^ "Women's Basketball Releases Full 2024-25 Slate". FIU Athletics. November 8, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
^ "ACU hopes to make statement in year four in the WAC". Abilene Christian University Athletics. November 1, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
^ "Women's basketball unveils non-conference slate for 2024-25 season". FGCU Athletics. September 12, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
^ ^a ^b "Challenging nonconference schedule unveiled". Grand Canyon University Athletics. September 12, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
^ "Women's Basketball announces 2024-25 schedule". University of Nevada Athletics. September 24, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
^ "2024 Big Easy Classic - NCAA Women's Basketball Tournaments". Alario Center. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
^ "USD Women's Basketball Reveals Full 2024-25 Schedule". University of San Diego Athletics. September 26, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.
^ Seattle U uses two home arenas: Redhawk Center, which is located on campus, and the newly renovated Climate Pledge Arena in uptown Seattle.

[1] "CONFIRMED: SFA returning to the Southland Conference". Dave Campbell's Texas Football. Retrieved October 19, 2024.

[2] "Championship Format And Dates For 2025 Hercules Tires WAC Basketball Tournament Set". wacsports.com. October 15, 2024. Retrieved October 19, 2024.

[3] "WCC to add Grand Canyon, Seattle in 2025-26". ESPN.com. May 10, 2024. Retrieved October 19, 2024.

[4] "Grand Canyon Tabbed as 2024-25 WAC Women's Basketball Preseason Favorite". wacsports.com. November 2, 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2024.

[5] "Women's Basketball Releases Full 2024-25 Slate". FIU Athletics. November 8, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.

[6] "ACU hopes to make statement in year four in the WAC". Abilene Christian University Athletics. November 1, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.

[7] "Women's basketball unveils non-conference slate for 2024-25 season". FGCU Athletics. September 12, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.

[:0-8] "Challenging nonconference schedule unveiled". Grand Canyon University Athletics. September 12, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.

[9] "Women's Basketball announces 2024-25 schedule". University of Nevada Athletics. September 24, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.

[10] "2024 Big Easy Classic - NCAA Women's Basketball Tournaments". Alario Center. Retrieved November 10, 2024.

[11] "USD Women's Basketball Reveals Full 2024-25 Schedule". University of San Diego Athletics. September 26, 2024. Retrieved November 10, 2024.

[12] Seattle U uses two home arenas: Redhawk Center, which is located on campus, and the newly renovated Climate Pledge Arena in uptown Seattle.

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v t e Western Athletic Conference women's basketball
Teams	Abilene Christian Wildcats California Baptist Lancers Grand Canyon Antelopes Seattle Redhawks Southern Utah Thunderbirds Tarleton Texans UT Arlington Mavericks Utah Tech Trailblazers Utah Valley Wolverines
Championships & awards	WAC women's basketball tournament
Seasons	1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25