Tennessee
Lady Vols basketball, UCLA announce home-and-home series starting in 2025-26 season
Lady Vols basketball and UCLA have scheduled a home-and-home series, UT announced July 18.
Tennessee will play at UCLA on Nov. 30 with the Bruins slated to play in Knoxville in the 2026-27 season. The date for the game at UT has yet to be announced.
The trip to play UCLA at Pauley Pavilion is part of a two-game trip to California. The Lady Vols play at Stanford on Dec. 3 in the ACC/SEC Women’s Basketball Challenge.
The Bruins were the No. 1 overall seed of the NCAA Tournament last season for the first time in program history. UCLA made a run to the Final Four in Tampa before losing 85-51 to eventual champion UConn. But the Bruins only return six players from their Final Four run with six players transferring out this offseason.
The nonconference road matchup brings Lady Vols transfer forward Janiah Barker back to her former program’s home gym in her first season at Tennessee. The 6-foot-4 forward, who will be a senior, was the Big Ten sixth player of the year after averaging 7.4 points and 6.0 rebounds. Barker spent one season at UCLA after playing her first two seasons at Texas A&M.
The Lady Vols are 18-3 against UCLA. They are 9-0 at UCLA, 8-1 at UT and 1-2 on neutral-sites. UCLA has won the past two meetings, beating the Lady Vols 89-77 in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament and winning 80-63 in the Battle 4 Atlantis in 2022.
The matchup with UCLA is the fourth nonconference game announced for the 2025-26 season. Tennessee will open the season against NC State on Nov. 4 in Greensboro, North Carolina, and face Louisville on Dec. 20 in the Women’s Champions Classic in Brooklyn, New York.
The Lady Vols also have a trip to face reigning national champion UConn on the road as part of a home-and-home series that started last season. Tennessee beat the Huskies 80-76 in Knoxville, notching its first win over UConn since 2007.
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks: knoxnews.com/subscribe