DAVIS, Calif. — The 2026 UC Davis women's soccer team will welcome its first opponent of the season when the Aggies host San Francisco in an exhibition at Aggie Soccer Field this Wednesday, Aug. 5. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. 

The team's regular-season opener is scheduled one week later at Fresno State (Aug. 12, 7 p.m.) followed by the first home game of the campaign against Causeway rival Sacramento State on Sunday, Aug. 16 (8 p.m.).

"A big goal of ours early in the season is to get everybody on the same page," head coach Kat Martz said about a 2026 team that features 13 newcomers, including six first-year transfers. "Once we do that we will use it as a springboard to bigger things."

Single-game tickets for all UC Davis home games including the exhibition are $10 for Youth (3-13 years old) and $13 for general admission. Flexbooks - packs of 10 tickets redeemable in any combination - are $85. Discounted group tickets are available for groups of 10 or more. For additional information or to purchase tickets, visit https://ucdavisaggies.evenue.net/, contact the Aggie Ticket Office at (530) 752-2471 or email aggietickets@ucdavis.edu.

Event parking will be honored in Lot 25 and the Pavilion parking structure ($5.50) for Wednesday's exhibition and all home games through Sept. 11. There is construction work in the area and fans should follow posted signage around the parking structure and stadium to enter the stadium.

With the start of the 2026 campaign right around the corner, let's preview this season's Aggies squad.

2026 SEASON NOTES

• Mertz begins her second season at the helm of the Aggies' in 2026 and 20th as a head coach with previous stops at UNLV (2005-09), St. Louis (2012), Oregon (2013-19) and MSU Denver (2020-24) before taking over at UC Davis in 2025
• The 28-player roster is a nearly equal mix of returnees (15) and newcomers (13), including six first-year transferS
• Six returnees (M Sydney Bushman, M Ashley Garcia, D Kiley Fehrenbacher, F Lisette Gregoris, GK Cat Pieper, M Karla Sandoval) played in all 19 contests in 2025
• The team's 15 returnees combined to play in 341 games and make 147 starts a year ago 
• UC Davis' 2026 captains are M Savannah Cordero, Garcia and and D Livi Lewis 
• UC Davis has changed conferences and will be playing in the Mountain West for the first time after most recently being a member of the Big West in 2025
• Aggie assistant coaches and Emilee Tominovich and Abbie Faingold return for a second season
• UC Davis has added Travis Clarke, who has 13 seasons of experience as a collegiate head coach at Hawai'i-Hilo (2006-08), Cal State San Bernardino (2009-13), Saint Mary's (2014-19) and Cal State Stanislaus (2025) to its coaching staff as an assistant coach

POSITION PREVIEWS
FORWARDS (7)
The Aggies were the lowest scoring team in the Big West last year and head coach Kat Mertz has done something about trying to improve that stat by bringing in five newcomers led by Cal Poly transfers Ashley Brewer and Jaycee DeFazio. Brewer contributed a goal and an assist while playing in 19 of 22 games off the bench as a 2025 freshman at Cal Poly for a team that finished 10-3-9 overall, won the Big West Tournament title and reached the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to No. 1 seed Stanford. As a prep at San Luis Obispo High School, she scored 76 career points on 59 goals and 17 assists while her squads won three All-Mountain League titles. DeFazio spent two seasons at Cal Poly (2023-24) and also has extensive playing experience internationally in Thailand and the Philippines. Freshmen Presley Henry and Chloe Keating were both highly decorated as preps with Henry a three-time first-team All-Section choice and Keating a West Alameda County Player of the Year. McKayla Farrell, Lisette Gregoris and Lakelee Perkins are the team's three returnees. Gregoris had a pair of goals last season, while Perkins picked up one.

"All of our newcomers have made an immediate impact for us," Mertz said. "We obviously need to score more goals than we did last year and they are going to help us do that. They play with joy and are dangerous threats. Our returnees have also been working extremely hard to improve and make significant contributions this season."

• Ashley Brewer (R-So., San Luis Obispo, Calif./San Luis Obispo HS/Cal Poly)
• Jaycee DeFazio (R-So., El Dorado Hills, Calif./St. Francis HS/Cal Poly)
• McKayla Farrell (R-Jr., Chino Hills, Calif./Western Christian HS)
• Lisette Gregoris (R-Jr., Patterson, Calif./Patterson HS/Arizona State)
• Presley Henry (Fr., Canyon Lake, Calif./Murrieta Valley HS)
• Chloe Keating (Fr., Oakland, Calif./Bishop O'Dowd HS)
• Lakelee Perkins (R-So., Rocklin, Calif./Whitney HS)

MIDFIELDERS (9)
The Aggies' midfield will feature six players who started games for the team in 2025, including the only one to start all 19 in Sidney Bushman, who contributed a pair goals for four points while putting up 20 shots and eight shots on goal. Other returning midfielders who started games in 2025 include Savannah Cordero (8 GP, 5 GS), Ashleigh Garcia (19 GP, 16 GS), Charlotte Henness (18 GP, 7 GS), Karla Sandoval (19 GP, 5 GS) and Viet-Thy Tran (17 GP, 5 GS). Freshmen Bella Fernandez, Payton Henry and Kaya Herndon are the team's three newcomers. All three were highly-decorated as preps with Fernandez picking up both Vine Valley Athletic League MVP and Napa County Player of the Year honors during her career, while Henry was a two-time first-team all-league choice and Herndon the Pioneer League Player of the Year.

"We are excited to return so many players in our midfield," Mertz said. "When you have that type of experience at one position and then add talented newcomers to the mix it should be a good group."

• Sidney Bushman (Jr., Manhattan Beach, Calif./Mira Costa HS)
• Savannah Cordero (Sr., Tracy, Calif./Tracy HS)
• Bella Fernandez (Fr., Napa, Calif./Justin Siena HS)
• Charlotte Henness (R-Sr., Henderson, Nev./Nevada State HS)
• Payton Henry (Fr., Canyon Lake, Calif./Murrieta Valley HS)
• Kaya Herndon (Fr., Torrance, Calif./Torrance HS)
• Ashleigh Garcia (R-Sr., Tracy, Calif./Tracy HS)
• Karia Sandoval (R-Sr., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Los Osos HS/Loyola Marymount)
• Viet-Thy Tran (Sr., Santa Clara, Calif./Wilcox HS)

DEFENDERS (9)
UC Davis returns four veteran defenders with significant starting experience from a year ago in Kiley Fehrenbacher, Summer Humphreys, Livi Lewis and Courtney Wagner. Fehrenbacher played in and started all 19 games, while Humphreys, Lewis and Wanger played in a combined 47 contests with 38 starts (Humphreys 18/13, Lewis 15/11, Wagner 14/14). The team's other returnee is Ava Peterson, who saw limited action a year ago by participating in seven games all off the bench. The newcomers include transfers Sydnie Fong (Nevada/San Diego) and Stella Villata (Santa Clara), as well as true freshmen Loralei Heldreth and Samantha Murdin.

"We have a lot of proven talent and experience in our backfield heading into this season," Mertz said. "Our returnees have played a lot of soccer for UC Davis, while we also have a couple of interesting transfers who will compete for playing time now and two freshmen that should be a big part of what we do in the future."

• Kiley Fehrenbacher (R-So., San Diego, Calif./Point Loma HS/Oregon)
• Sydnie Fong (R-Sr., Novato, Calif./San Marin HS/San Diego/Nevada)
• Loralei Heldreth (Fr., Barstow, Calif./Excelsior Charter)
• Summer Humphreys (R-Jr., Carlsbad, Calif./La Costa Canyon HS)
• Livi Lewis (R-Sr., Carlsbad, Calif/Carlsbad HS)
• Samantha Murdin (Fr., Lafayette, Calif./Acalanes HS)
• Ava Peterson (So., Las Vegas, Nev./Palos Verde HS)
• Stella Villalta (R-So., Woodside, Calif./The American International School in England/Santa Clara)
• Courtney Wagner (R-Jr., Rocklin, Calif./Whitney HS)

GOALKEEPERS (3)
Fifth-year senior Cat Pieper returned to the Aggies and collegiate soccer in 2025 after a two-year absence while studying at Marquette, starting all 19 games while posting respectable numbers of a 1.18 goals against average and a .780 save percentage. In 2026, Mertz has brought in a pair of transfers to challenge Pieper for the job in Dina Frenkel (Purdue) and Piper Wilkison (Butler).

"We have a great group of hungry goalkeepers," Mertz said. "They are all going to make each other better."

• Dina Frenkel (R-Fr., San Francisco, Calif./St. Ignatius Prep/Purdue)
• Cat Pieper (R-Sr., Random Lake, Wis./Random Lake HS)
• Piper Wllkison (R-So., Newport Beach, Calif./Mater Dei HS/Butler)

ABOUT UC DAVIS ATHLETICS 
UC Davis, ranked No. 2 among public universities by the Wall Street Journal in the value of a college degree, is home to 40,000 undergraduate students and 12,000 employees. Ranked top in the United States in agriculture and forestry as well as No. 1 in veterinary medicine, UC Davis is located in a true California college town nestled between world-class destinations such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe. Over 650 Aggie student-athletes compete in 25 Division I varsity sports, with 16 sports transitioning to the Mountain West Conference beginning in 2026–27. 

For more information, visit https://ucdavisaggies.com/.