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.