SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento State women's basketball team is making a great first impression entering its first season in The Big West as the coaches have picked the Hornets to finish fifth in the league while selecting senior Natalie Picton and junior Jenessa Cotton to its seven-woman preseason All-Big West squad.

After spending the last 30 years as members of the Big Sky Conference, Sacramento State received one first-place vote and 88 points overall from the league's head coaches, finishing behind prohibitive favorite UC San Diego (120 points, 10 first-place votes), UC Irvine (108 points, one first-place vote), UC Santa Barbara (94), and California Baptist (93 points.

The Hornets stood 18 points ahead of Utah Valley (70 points) to finish among the top half in the 12-team league. Complete results are listed below.

Picton was a force for Sacramento State in her first season in the green and gold, starting 31 of the team's 33 games and averaging a team-high 35.8 minutes per contest. The Big Sky All-Tournament Team selection finished the year second on the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game while averaging 3.7 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game.

She was among the top 10 in the Big Sky in steals per game, minutes, three pointers made (66), and fourth in three-pointers per game (2.13). Picton scored in double figures 22 times, including a collegiate high of 27 points in a win over Simpson on Dec. 15 of last year.

Cotton is in her first season with the Hornets after transferring from Kansas State where she appeared in 24 games, started 16, and averaged 4.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per game while shooting .422 from the field overall in 14.8 minutes per contest.

A highly regarded recruit out of Mater Dei HS in Santa Ana, Calif., Cotton originally signed with Duke out of high school and appeared in eight games for a Blue Devils squad that won the ACC Championship and advanced to the "Elite Eight" of the NCAA Tournament in 2025.

Entering 2026-27, Sacramento State returns seven letter winners and welcomes seven new faces to the roster overall while featuring one of the nation's top transfer classes among mid-major schools according to the website On3.com.

The Hornets are coming off a 2025-26 campaign that saw them finish 15-18 overall and 8-10 in their final season in the Big Sky, advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament for only the fifth time in school history after finishing fifth during the regular season.

The 15 wins matched the win total from the 2024-25 campaign and gave Sacramento State back-to-back seasons with 15-or-more wins for the first time in a decade since the 2013-14 (18-12) and 2014-15 (18-16) teams accomplished the feat. The Hornets finished with double-digit wins for the fourth time in the last five seasons after doing so just twice in the five years before that.

Sacramento State's incoming class consists of six Division I transfers and one true freshman who will help usher in the Hornets' debut in The Big West. The group includes three Big 12 Conference transfers in Arizona's Achol Magot and the Kansas State duo of Alexis Hess and Cotton, one from the Missouri Valley Conference in Evansville's Jelena Savic, one from The American in Memphis' Brooklyn Charlo, and one from the Northeast Conference in Long Island's Koko Akridge. Those six players join true freshman Oregon native Jordan Barlow, who recently graduated from South Medford HS.

Two of the transfers are "coming home" to California as Akridge (San Diego, Calif.) and Cotton (Orange, Calif.) return to their home state, while Pennsylvania (Hess), Arizona (Magot), and Colorado (Charlo) are also represented. Savic, a native of Melbourne, Australia, is the lone international player among the signees.

Sacramento State opens the year with an exhibition against Stanislaus State on Oct. 28 at 6:30 p.m., before officially tipping-off the campaign on the road at UT Arlington on Nov. 3.

2026-27 BIG WEST WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PRESEASON POLL
1. UC San Diego - 120 points (10)
2. UC Irvine - 108 (1)
3. UC Santa Barbara - 94
4. California Baptist - 93
5. Sacramento State - 88 (1)
6. Utah Valley - 70
7. UC Riverside - 59
8. CSUN - 53
9. Cal Poly - 35
t10. Cal State Bakersfield - 25
t10. Long Beach State - 25
12. Cal State Fullerton - 22

*first-place votes in parentheses

2026-27 PRESEASON ALL-BIG WEST TEAM (in alphabetical order)
Zoe Borter, Sr., F, Beaverton, Ore. / UC Santa Barbara
Erin Condron, Sr., F/C, Woodend, Victoria, Australia / UC San Diego
Jenessa Cotton, Jr., F, Orange, Calif. / Sacramento State
Lev Feiman, So., G, Woodland Hills, Calif. / UC San Diego
Lauren Olsen, So., G, Douglas, Wyo. / California Baptist
Natalie Picton, Sr., G, Welland, Ontario, Canada / Sacramento State
Rosa Smith, Grad., G, Kirkland, Wash. / UC San Diego