SAN DIEGO — San Diego women's basketball (0-0, 0-0 WCC) opens the 2026-27 season and Blanche Alverson's second year at the helm Monday, Nov. 2, at New Mexico State (0-0, 0-0 CUSA). Tipoff at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, N.M., is set for 5 p.m. PT (6 p.m. MT). The Toreros were picked sixth in the WCC Preseason Coaches Poll, and junior guard Kylie Ray was named to the WCC Preseason Team. The Aggies begin their first season under head coach Adeniyi Amadou.
Monday's game streams on ESPN+, and live stats are available at nmstatesports.com.
LAST SEASON: A FOUR-WIN JUMP AND A WCC TOURNAMENT WIN
• San Diego went 11-22 overall and 4-14 in the WCC in 2025-26, Blanche Alverson's first season, improving by four wins and doubling its conference win total from the year before after being picked 11th in the 12-team league's preseason poll.
• The Toreros went 9-7 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion, where all four of their WCC wins came: Pepperdine (54-51, Jan. 10), LMU (69-60, Jan. 24), Seattle U (71-54, Feb. 7) and Pacific (64-59, Feb. 28). The Pacific win closed the regular season in front of the year's largest home crowd (1,988).
• As the No. 11 seed in the WCC Tournament in Las Vegas, USD beat No. 10 seed Saint Mary's 66-62 on March 5 behind a 21-point fourth quarter. Hallie Rhodes scored 22 points and Kylie Ray had 19 points and 10 rebounds before the season ended the next day with a 61-52 loss to No. 7 seed San Francisco.
• USD outrebounded opponents by 4.2 per game (39.4-35.3), third-best in the WCC, and its 13.6 offensive rebounds per game ranked second in the league and 65th nationally. Opponents shot 39.6 percent and averaged 63.8 points, both fifth-best in the WCC.
• Ray earned All-WCC Second Team honors after averaging a team-high 15.9 points and shooting 89.5 percent at the line, which led the WCC and ranked 15th nationally. Olivia Owens made the All-WCC Freshman Team, Ayla Williams (Dec. 8) and Owens (Feb. 9) were named WCC Freshman of the Week, and Lilly Amor and Eva Ruse were among five Toreros named WCC All-Academic honorable mention.
RAY NAMED TO 2026-27 WCC PRESEASON TEAM
• Kylie Ray was named to the 10-player 2026-27 WCC Preseason Team, USD's lone selection, after earning All-WCC Second Team honors in her first season with the Toreros following her transfer from Utah.
• Joining Ray on the preseason team are Dyani Ananiev and Florence Dallow of Portland, Aina Cargol and Candy Edokpaigbe of San Francisco, Lina Falk and Elli Guiney of Pepperdine, Maya Hernandez of LMU, and Maia Jones and Ava Schmidt of Santa Clara.
2026-27 WCC PRESEASON COACHES POLL
• San Diego was picked sixth in the 2026-27 WCC Preseason Coaches Poll with 35 points, one ahead of seventh-place Pacific, a five-spot jump from a year ago, when the Toreros were picked 11th in a 12-team field. Santa Clara was tabbed the preseason favorite with 74 points and four first-place votes, edging Portland (71 points, four first-place votes) and LMU (63 points, two first-place votes).
• Full poll (points, with first-place votes in parentheses): 1. Santa Clara 74 (4); 2. Portland 71 (4); 3. LMU 63 (2); 4. Pepperdine 59; 5. San Francisco 58; 6. San Diego 35; 7. Pacific 34; 8. Seattle U 24; 9. Saint Mary's 22; 10. Denver 10.
ABOUT MONDAY'S GAME
• Monday is the season opener for both teams and the New Mexico State debut of head coach Adeniyi Amadou, who was named the Aggies' 13th head coach on March 11 after seven seasons as associate head coach at Rhode Island. The Rams won the Atlantic 10 Tournament and reached the NCAA Tournament last season. A Paris native who played at Army and Indiana (Pa.), Amadou also coached at Syracuse, Kentucky and Dayton.
• New Mexico State went 9-21 overall and 5-13 in Conference USA in 2025-26 and did not qualify for the CUSA Tournament. Senior guard Emma Christiano, a Las Cruces native who averaged 2.9 points and 2.7 assists last season, is the lone returner on a roster with 11 newcomers — five freshmen and six Division I transfers.
• It is the Aggies' first home season opener since 2023-24. The Pan American Center opened in 1968, seats 12,200 and underwent a $23.5 million renovation that began in 2005. NMSU reached a naming-rights agreement in September that will make it White Sands FCU Arena at the Pan American Center.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. NEW MEXICO STATE
• San Diego is 1-3 all-time against New Mexico State and won the most recent meeting, 57-48, on Nov. 24, 2025, at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. The Aggies won the previous matchup, 57-52, in the Toreros' Winter Classic on Dec. 3, 2022.
LAST MEETING: USD 57, NEW MEXICO STATE 48 (NOV. 24, 2025)
• New Mexico State led 24-21 at halftime before San Diego won the third quarter 18-7. Olivia Owens, who scored all 17 of her points after halftime, had six in an 8-0 run that turned a 26-23 deficit into a 31-26 lead, and the Toreros did not trail again.
• The Aggies cut a 39-31 deficit to 39-38 with 7:07 left before USD answered with six straight points, capped by Eva Ruse's layup off a turnover for a 45-38 lead. The Toreros' biggest lead was nine, at 51-42 with 1:26 to play.
• USD forced 25 turnovers and turned them into a 26-10 edge in points off turnovers, with 18 steals — four by Helen Holley — and won the boards 43-38 behind 17 offensive rebounds.
• Ayla Williams had 14 rebounds, seven of them offensive, with seven points and two blocks in her first career start, and Ruse added six points and six rebounds in 13 minutes. Five current Toreros played: Owens, Williams, Ruse, Jessica Ajayi and Lilly Amor.
• Imani Warren scored a career-high 20 points off the bench for New Mexico State, and Lucia Lara had nine points and nine rebounds. Christiano, the Aggies' only returner, started and played 10 minutes.
YEAR TWO UNDER ALVERSON
• Monday's opener is the first game of Alverson's second season. Named the fourth head coach in program history on March 25, 2025, she won her USD debut, 92-23 over Bethesda on Nov. 3, 2025, and led the Toreros to 11 wins.
• Alverson came to USD after six seasons at Georgia Tech (2019-25), the last three as associate head coach under Nell Fortner, who had coached her at Auburn. The Yellow Jackets made three NCAA Tournaments in that span, including the 2021 Sweet 16, and the 2024-25 team opened 15-0, the best start in program history, and climbed to No. 13 in the AP poll.
• Assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Samantha Guastella and assistants Jon Silver and Paul Henry Fabbri return for their second seasons with Alverson. Jualeah Woods is in her fifth season at USD and director of operations Tiffany Gibson is in her sixth.
• USD has made 11 postseason appearances, most recently a run to the 2023 WNIT Super 16, and has played in the NCAA Tournament three times (1993, 2000 and 2008).
A NEW-LOOK ROSTER
• The 2026-27 roster has 13 players: eight returners and five newcomers — three transfers and two freshmen.
• The returners include USD's top two scorers from 2025-26, Ray (15.9 ppg) and Owens (11.3), and its top two rebounders, Ruse (5.7 rpg) and Owens (5.5). The six returners who played last season accounted for 1,215 of the Toreros' 1,896 points (64.1 percent). Lauren McCall, who started all 23 games she played in 2024-25, is back after missing last season while rehabbing an injury.
• The transfers come from the Big 12, Big Ten and Big East: Kiera Pemberton from Baylor, by way of North Dakota, where she was an All-Summit League Second Team pick in 2024-25; Sammie Wagner from Oregon; and Braelynn Barnett from Georgetown. Pemberton and Wagner were on 2026 NCAA Tournament teams.
• The freshmen are Kate Danner, a 6-2 forward and TABC All-State pick from Dallas' Highland Park High School, and Rosalie Esser, a guard from Berlin who has played for Germany at three FIBA youth European championships.
• Four Toreros come from outside the U.S.: Amor (Australia), Esser (Germany), Pemberton and Ruse (Canada). The rest of the roster spans seven states, with two players each from Colorado and Texas.
• By class: two graduate students (McCall, Wagner), one senior (Pemberton), three juniors (Amor, Ray, Ruse), five sophomores (Ryanne Bahnsen-Price, Ajayi, Barnett, Williams, Owens) and two freshmen (Esser, Danner). Danner and Ruse are the tallest Toreros at 6-2.
FAMILIAR FACES
• Alverson returns to the Pan American Center, where she spent the 2016-17 season as an assistant on Mark Trakh's New Mexico State staff. Those Aggies went 24-7 and 14-0 in the WAC — the program's first unbeaten conference season — won a program-record 17 straight games and a third straight WAC Tournament title, and led Stanford at halftime in the NCAA Tournament.
• She worked with Brooke Salas, then a sophomore, who became a two-time WAC Player of the Year and was inducted into the NMSU Hall of Fame in 2024. Salas later played professionally for CD Zamarat in Spain, Alverson's own pro club.
• Christiano, a Las Cruces native, is the only Aggie on this season's roster who played in last year's meeting.
• Two USD assistants have San Diego State ties: Woods coached the Aztecs from 2005-13, the last two seasons as associate head coach, and Silver spent nine seasons there (2016-25). Guastella played for and later coached under Tricia Fabbri — Paul Henry Fabbri's mother — at Quinnipiac.
• Pemberton played for Baylor last season. Wagner, a fellow transfer, committed to Baylor as a 14-year-old eighth grader before ultimately signing with Oregon.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
#6 Kylie Ray | Junior | 5-8 | Guard | La Crescenta, Calif. | Crescenta Valley | Utah
Last Season (2025-26)
• Ray earned All-WCC Second Team honors in her first season at USD and was named to the 2026-27 WCC Preseason Team. She led the Toreros in scoring (15.9 ppg), minutes (31.5 per game) and assists (2.7 per game) and started 25 of her 27 games, adding 5.4 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.
• Her 89.5 percent free-throw shooting (85 of 95) led the WCC, ranked 15th nationally and is the second-best single-season mark in program history (minimum 50 attempts), behind Amanda Bishop's 92.7 percent in 1997-98.
• Ray averaged 17.1 points in WCC play and had 10 games of 20 or more points, including a season-high 29 at Pacific on Dec. 30 and 26 against LMU on Jan. 24, when she made 13 of 14 free throws. Her two double-doubles came at San Francisco (27 points, 13 rebounds, Jan. 22) and against Saint Mary's in the WCC Tournament (19 points, 10 rebounds, March 5).
• Injuries cost her six games, including last season's win over New Mexico State.
#24 Olivia Owens | Sophomore | 5-10 | Guard | Columbus, Ohio | Phoenix Country Day
Last Season (2025-26)
• Owens made the All-WCC Freshman Team after starting 29 of 32 games and averaging 11.3 points and 5.5 rebounds (12.6 and 6.6 in WCC play). She led the Toreros in total minutes (982), assists (81), steals (49) and 3-pointers (35).
• She was the WCC Freshman of the Week on Feb. 9 after back-to-back double-doubles: 31 points and 12 rebounds against Washington State and 20 points and 13 rebounds against Seattle U. The 31 points were the most by a Torero last season and tied for eighth on the program's single-game list.
• Owens had four double-doubles, three of them in a row from Feb. 5-12, and scored in double figures in 10 of the last 11 games, averaging 15.8 points in that stretch. She scored 27 with five 3-pointers at Portland on Jan. 31.
• She scored all 17 of her points after halftime, with six assists, in last season's 57-48 win over New Mexico State.
#9 Kiera Pemberton | Senior | 6-1 | Forward | Langley, British Columbia | Walnut Grove Secondary | North Dakota / Baylor
Last Season (2025-26 at Baylor)
• Pemberton played in 18 games off the bench for a Baylor team that went 25-9, finished third in the Big 12 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament, its 22nd straight appearance. She averaged 1.9 points in 5.7 minutes, shot 57.9 percent from the field and had a season-high nine points against Louisiana Tech on Nov. 26.
#15 Eva Ruse | Junior | 6-2 | Forward | North Vancouver, British Columbia | Mulgrave School
Last Season (2025-26)
• Ruse led the Toreros in rebounding (5.7 rpg) and offensive rebounds (88) while averaging 5.5 points and shooting 47.4 percent from the field (65 of 137), best among USD's regulars. She played all 33 games with 17 starts and was named WCC All-Academic honorable mention.
• Her 18 rebounds, with 20 points, against Seattle U on Feb. 7 tied for the sixth-most in a game in program history on a night USD set a school record with 63 team rebounds. She had three double-doubles and also scored 20 against Southeast Missouri State on Nov. 30.
• She had six points and six rebounds in 13 minutes against New Mexico State.
#22 Ayla Williams | Sophomore | 6-0 | Post | Las Vegas, Nev. | Centennial
Last Season (2025-26)
• Williams played all 33 games as a freshman, starting 13, and led the Toreros with 22 blocks while averaging 2.9 points and 4.4 rebounds in 11.8 minutes. Her 61 offensive rebounds tied for second on the team.
• She was the WCC Freshman of the Week on Dec. 8, USD's first weekly honoree of the season, after back-to-back double-doubles: 12 points and 16 rebounds against Binghamton and 14 points and 18 rebounds against Utah State. The 18 rebounds tied for the sixth-most in a game in program history.
• Williams had 14 rebounds, seven of them offensive, and two blocks in her first career start, against New Mexico State on Nov. 24.
#3 Lilly Amor | Junior | 5-11 | Guard | Melbourne, Australia | Templestowe College
Last Season (2025-26)
• Amor started 22 of 32 games, averaging 2.7 points in 23.7 minutes with 23 3-pointers, 29 assists and 24 steals, and was named WCC All-Academic honorable mention.
• She played all 40 minutes in both WCC Tournament games. Against Saint Mary's, she had a career-high four blocks and made two free throws, her first makes of the season, in the final minute for a 65-62 lead.
• She scored a career-high 13 points against Bethesda on Nov. 3 and nine against Utah State on Dec. 7, when she hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter.
#4 Jessica Ajayi | Sophomore | 5-10 | Guard | Kent, Wash. | Kentwood
Last Season (2025-26)
• Ajayi played in 23 games off the bench as a freshman, averaging 2.7 points in 11.6 minutes and making 13 3-pointers.
• She scored a career-high 14 points against Pacific on Feb. 28, including a 3-pointer with 6:47 left that gave USD its first lead of the second half, 54-52, in a 64-59 win.
• She had two points and two steals in 17 minutes against New Mexico State.
#20 Braelynn Barnett | Sophomore | 6-1 | Forward | Aurora, Colo. | Cherry Creek | Georgetown
Last Season (2025-26 at Georgetown)
• Barnett appeared in 13 games as a freshman at Georgetown, totaling 19 points, nine rebounds and four blocks while shooting 50.0 percent from the field (8 of 16). She had four points and two blocks in 10 minutes against DePaul on March 1 and played in the Big East quarterfinals against UConn.
#11 Sammie Wagner | Graduate | 6-1 | Guard/Forward | San Antonio, Texas | Ronald Reagan | Oregon
Last Season (2025-26 at Oregon)
• Wagner missed the first 12 games with an injury and played in seven games for an Oregon team that went 23-13 and reached the NCAA Tournament's second round as a No. 8 seed. She appeared in both NCAA games in Austin, a 70-60 win over Virginia Tech and a loss to No. 1 seed Texas.
#5 Lauren McCall | Graduate | 5-6 | Guard | Boise, Idaho | Timberline
2024-25 Season
• McCall started all 23 games she played as a sophomore in 2024-25, averaging 6.2 points, 2.0 assists and 1.4 steals in 22.3 minutes and making 28 3-pointers. She scored a season-high 12 points against Alabama A&M (Nov. 30, 2024) and at Boise State (Dec. 8, 2024), when she hit four 3-pointers in her hometown.
• She had six assists against Gonzaga on Dec. 21, 2024, and played 36 minutes in an overtime game at UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 24, 2024. As a freshman in 2023-24, she played in 19 games.
• McCall did not play in 2025-26 while rehabbing an injury. She signed with USD in November 2022 and is in her fourth year in the program.
