SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – After a historic 2025 season, the UC Santa Barbara Softball team is ready to prove that it wasn't a fluke. The Gauchos are coming off their best season in program history after winning 36 games, winning their first-ever Big West Championship, along with reaching a Regional Championship game. Today, the program announced its 2026 season schedule.
The Gauchos will open their season in the Los Angeles area the weekend of Feb. 6-8. On Feb. 6, the Gauchos will take on Northern Colorado, followed by a rematch of the 2025 Regional Championship Final against the Bruins of UCLA. Both games will be played at Easton Stadium on the campus of UCLA. After the opening day of the season, the Gauchos will play two games in Irvine, California, against Oregon State and Utah before heading to LMU on the eighth to take on Utah Tech and LMU.
Santa Barbara will make a pitstop at home to host Kentucky in a midweek matchup on Feb. 10. The game is the earliest UCSB has played at home since hosting Oklahoma on Feb. 10 in the 2022 season. The Gauchos will head north from Feb. 13-15 as they compete in the Silicon Valley Classic I, co-hosted by San Jose State and Santa Clara. On the opening day of the classic, Santa Barbara will take on Illinois State and San Jose State at San Jose. The next day, the Gauchos will play two more games, against two 2025 NCAA Tournament teams in Cal and Santa Clara in Santa Clara. The Gauchos will return to San Jose on the final day for a single game against Utah.
The next weekend the Gauchos will head to the Arizona Desert to compete in the Purple Classic, hosted by Grand Canyon. The Gauchos will face San Diego and Montana on the opening day before taking on their fifth and sixth 2025 NCAA Tournament participants in North Florida and Grand Canyon.
After the Purple Classic, the Gauchos will host their own tournament. UC Santa Barbara will play LIU and Iowa State three times each between Feb. 26 and March 1. The six games are a part of a 10-game home stand. The Blue and Gold then get into conference play, opening up with UC San Diego on March 7 and 8. The Gauchos round out the home stand with a midweek matchup against Notre Dame on March 11.
After a lengthy two and a half weeks at home, UC Santa Barbara will embark on a seven-game road trip starting with rival Cal Poly on March 14 and 15. The next weekend, the Gauchos will head to Riverside and take on UC Riverside on March 21 and 22 before ending their road trip with a midweek game against future Big West opponent California Baptist.
UC Santa Barbara charges on with conference play at home over the next two weekends, hosting Cal State Bakersfield to round out March on the 28 and 29. The Blue and Gold then welcome Hawai'i to town to begin April on the 3 and 4.
The Gauchos will then flip home and away series for their final four weekends as they head to Long Beach State on April 11 and 12 before hosting CSUN on April 18 and 19. The Gauchos final regular-season road trip will be to UC Davis on April 25 and 26 before returning home to host Cal State Fullerton on May 1 and 2.
Santa Barbara will look to repeat as Big West Champions at The Big West Championships that will run May 6-9 on the campus of Cal State Fullerton.
