Head coach Courtney Banghart and the Tar Heels are heading out west early in the 2025-26 season.
UNC will compete in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Challenge in Las Vegas this coming November, facing UCLA and Fairfield. The games will be played at Michelob ULTRA Arena, home of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces, with tip-off times and TV information to be shared later.
According to the program, UNC is scheduled to play UCLA on November 13 and Fairfield on November 15.
UCLA is coming off a run to the Final Four this past season after spending multiple weeks ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll and earning the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. The Tar Heels and Bruins have not faced off in head coach Courtney Banghart’s tenure in Chapel Hill. The last meeting occurred November 22, 2018, when UNC defeated UCLA 83-49 in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Carolina also swept a home-and-home series with the Bruins in 2013 and 2014, winning 78-68 in Los Angeles and 84-68 in Chapel Hill. The meeting this upcoming season will be a reunion for Carolina guard Elina Aarnisalo, who spent her freshman year with the Bruins before transferring to UNC in April.
Fairfield has quickly established itself as one of the best mid-major programs in basketball, winning at least 25 games and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in three of the past four seasons. The 2023-24 season was the best in school history, as the Stags finished 31-2 overall, 20-0 in league play and appeared in the AP Poll for the first time ever. The Stags followed that up with a 28-5 campaign in the 2024-25 season. This season’s meeting will be the first ever between UNC and Fairfield in women’s basketball.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Anthony Sorbellini
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