The UC Irvine Women’s Soccer team began preparations for their 2026 season, which will not only include new student athletes but also new conference foes.
UCI is one of the 341 Division One teams in the nation and a member of the Big West conference — a conference which will be welcoming in three new teams next season as two depart.
The Anteaters announced their final signing for the 2025 season as sophomore forward Ariane Haysman Boaler, a transfer from the University of Oregon, on June 18. Boaler came to Irvine having played 307 minutes with five shots and one goal in her time at Oregon.
UC Irvine started by going 1-1 in two exhibition matches against Loyola Marymount University and Trinity Western University — which were both played in early August — and then went 3-2-4 in non-conference play for the remainder of August and September.
Irvine’s most important non-conference matchup was against one of the top teams in the nation, end of year ranked No. 6 University of Washington, where the Anteaters finished with a 1-1 draw at Anteater Stadium on Aug. 24.
UCI defeated future Big West member California State University, Sacramento 4-0 on Aug. 28. The Hornets are currently part of the Big Sky conference and finished 2-5-1 in conference play.
In Big West play, the Anteaters went 5-2-3, finishing fourth in the conference. UCI played UC Davis for the final time in conference, which was a 2-0 victory for the Anteaters on Oct. 2. The final conference matchup against the University of Hawai’i was also a 2-0 victory for UC Irvine on Oct. 30, and both teams are headed to the Mountain West conference next season.
UC Irvine’s fourth place conference finish allowed the ‘Eaters to host a first round conference championship game. UCI hosted the UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) Gauchos at Anteater Stadium on Nov. 2. In front of 422 people, the Anteaters outshot the Gauchos 12-7 and won the save battle 4-2; but, at the 51:54 mark in the game, junior defender Emily Caughey scored to put UCSB ahead 1-0, which was the final result of the match and of the Anteaters 2025 campaign.
“Tough result, I think we put so much into that game, it was going to be a tough week for us being in Hawaii just a couple of days ago and having to come back and play today,” Head Coach Scott Juniper said following the first round matchup.
As UC Irvine looks for their first semi-final conference championship appearance since 2023, the Anteaters will not have to deal with such large travel in 2026 with the departure of Hawai’i.
Along with Sacramento State, two other teams will be joining the Big West conference next season. One of the new teams, California Baptist University, fell 1-3 to the University of Kansas of the Big 12 in the first round of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament. The other new team is Utah Valley University (UVU), who received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. UVU fell in the first round of the NCAA tournament to another Big 12 team, the University of Colorado, 1-2 in double overtime. Both teams are joining the Big West from the Western Athletic conference.
Four days after Florida State University of the Atlantic Coast conference won the 2025 national championship game, UC Irvine announced a new signing of forward/midfielder Taylor Esparza on Dec. 12.
To kick 2026 off, the Anteaters announced the signing of sophomore defender/midfielder/forward Oona Hartman on Jan. 10. Hartman comes from Arizona State University, where she played 225 minutes and had two shots. This season, she played three Big 12 games.
Jack Fedor is the 2025-2026 Sports Editor. He can be reached at jfedor@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores and Tracy Sandoval