2025–26 North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball team

2025–26 North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball
2025–26 North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball
Conference	Atlantic Coast Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 21
AP	No. 21
Record	21–5 (10–3 ACC)
Head coach	Courtney Banghart (7th season);
Associate head coach	Joanne Aluka-White (7th season)
Assistant coaches	Cory McNeill (2nd season); Katherine Bixby (1st season); Daniel Metzelfeld (3rd season); Lexi Weger (1st season);
Home arena	Carmichael Arena

2025–26 ACC women's basketball standings
	Conf.				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 11 Duke	13	–	0	1.000	18	–	6	.750
No. 9 Louisville	13	–	1	.929	23	–	4	.852
No. 21 North Carolina	10	–	3	.769	21	–	5	.808
NC State	10	–	3	.769	17	–	7	.708
Syracuse	10	–	4	.714	20	–	5	.800
Virginia Tech	9	–	5	.643	19	–	7	.731
Clemson	9	–	5	.643	18	–	8	.692
Virginia	9	–	5	.643	17	–	8	.680
Notre Dame	7	–	6	.538	15	–	9	.625
California	7	–	6	.538	16	–	10	.615
Georgia Tech	6	–	8	.429	11	–	15	.423
Stanford	5	–	8	.385	16	–	10	.615
Miami (FL)	4	–	9	.308	12	–	12	.500
Florida State	4	–	9	.308	9	–	16	.360
Wake Forest	3	–	11	.214	13	–	13	.500
SMU	1	–	12	.077	8	–	17	.320
Pittsburgh	1	–	12	.077	8	–	18	.308
Boston College	0	–	14	.000	4	–	23	.148

† 2026 ACC tournament winner As of February 12, 2026 Rankings from AP Poll

The 2025–26 North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball team represent the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the 2025–26 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Tar Heels are led by seventh-year head coach Courtney Banghart. The Tar Heels play their home games at Carmichael Arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

Previous season

The Tar Heels finished the regular season 25–6 overall and 13–5 in ACC play to finish in a three-way tie for fourth place. As the fifth seed in the ACC tournament, earned a bye into the second round where they defeated Boston College 78–71. They avenged a regular season loss to Florida State, who was ranked twenty second at the time of this meeting, in the Quarterfinals 60–56. They lost in the semifinals to first seed and seventh-ranked rival NC State 66–55 to end their tournament run. They received an at-large invitation to the NCAA tournament and were the three-seed in the Birmingham 2 region. They defeated fourteen seed Oregon State in the First Round and six-seed and sixteenth-ranked West Virginia in the Second Round. The Tar Heels hosted both games, before traveling to a neutral site to face second seed, seventh-ranked, rival Duke for a third time this season. After splitting the regular season series, Duke won the post-season matchup 47–38 to end the Tar Heels' season. They finished with an overall record of 29–8. Their 29 wins was the highest since the 2012–13 season.

Offseason

Departures

Departures
Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Reason for departure
Alyssa Ustby	1	G/F	6'1"	Graduate Student	Rochester, Minnesota	Graduated
Grace Townsend	2	G	5'5"	Graduate Student	Midlothian, Virginia	Graduated
Maria Gakdeng	5	F/C	6'3"	Senior	Lanham, Maryland	Graduated
Kayla McPherson	11	G	5'8"	Junior	Hull, Georgia	Retired from basketball^[1]
Trayanna Crisp	14	G	5'8"	Junior	Goodyear, Arizona	Transferred to Mississippi State^[2]
Lexi Donarski	20	G	6'0"	Graduate Student	La Crosse, Wisconsin	Graduated

Additions

Incoming transfers

Incoming transfers
Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Previous school
Nyla Harris	2	F	6'2"	Senior	Windermere, Florida	Louisville^[3]
Elina Aarnisalo	17	G	5'10"	Sophomore	Helsinki, Finland	UCLA^[4]

Recruiting class

College recruiting information
Name	Hometown	School	Height	Weight	Commit date
Liza Astakhova F	Moscow, Russia	Znaika School	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	N/A	Aug 20, 2025
Liza Astakhova F	Recruit ratings: ESPN: (NR)
Nyla Brooks G	Waldorf, Maryland	Bishop Ireton	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	N/A	Aug 29, 2024
Nyla Brooks G	Recruit ratings: ESPN: (97)
Taliyah Henderson G	Vail, Arizona	Salpointe Catholic	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	N/A	Aug 23, 2024
Taliyah Henderson G	Recruit ratings: ESPN: (96)
Taissa Queiroz G	Belo Horizonte, Brazil	Cardinal Newman	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	N/A	Oct 13, 2024
Taissa Queiroz G	Recruit ratings: ESPN: (92)
Overall recruit ranking:
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, On3, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources:

Sources:^[5]

Roster

2025–26 North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	0	Lanie Grant	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	So	James River	Midlothian, VA
G	1	Jordan Zubich	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	So	Mountain Iron-Buhl	Mountain Iron, MN
F	2	Nyla Harris	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	Sr	Lake Highland Prep Louisville	Winermere, FL
G	3	Taliyah Henderson	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Fr	Salpointe Catholic	Vail, AZ
F	4	Laila Hull	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	RS So	Zionsville Community	Zionsville, IN
F	5	Liza Astakhova	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	Fr	Znaika School	Moscow, Russia
G	7	Nyla Brooks	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Fr	Bishop Ireton	Waldorf, MD
G	10	Reniya Kelly	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)	Jr	Hoover	Hoover, AL
G	15	Sydney Barker	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)	Jr	Jordan	Durham, NC
G	17	Elina Aarnisalo	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	So	Mäkelänrinne UCLA	Helsinki, Finland
F	21	Ciera Toomey	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	RS So	Dunmore	Dunmore, PA
G	24	Indya Nivar	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	Sr	Apex Friendship Stanford	Apex, NC
G	26	Taissa Queiroz	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Fr	Cardinal Newman	Belo Horizonte, Brazil
C	34	Blanca Thomas	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	So	Charlotte Catholic	Charlotte, NC

Head coach

Courtney Banghart (Dartmouth)

Assistant coach(es)

Joanne Aluka-White (Middle Tennessee)
Cory McNeill (Morgan State)
Katherine Bixby (Ithaca)
Daniel Metzelfeld (Trinity)
Lexi Weger (Princeton)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster
Last update: October 5, 2025

Schedule and results

Source^[6]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Site (attendance) city, state
Exhibition
October 30, 2025* 6:00 p.m	No. 11	vs. No. 2 South Carolina Bad Boy Mowers Series - Atlanta	L 82–91	–	14 – Tied	10 – Harris	3 – Nivar	State Farm Arena (500) Atlanta, GA
Regular season
November 3, 2025* 11:00 a.m., ACCNX	No. 11	North Carolina Central	W 90–42	1–0	15 – Brooks	11 – Toomey	3 – Aarnisalo	Carmichael Arena (6,336) Chapel Hill, NC
November 6, 2025* 7:00 p.m., ACCNX	No. 11	Elon	W 71–37	2–0	13 – Nivar	13 – Toomey	4 – Tied	Carmichael Arena (3,111) Chapel Hill, NC
November 13, 2025* 9:00 p.m., ESPN2	No. 11	vs. No. 3 UCLA WBCA Challenge	L 60–78	2–1	13 – Aarnisalo	6 – Toomey	4 – Tied	Michelob Ultra Arena (1,588) Paradise, NV
November 15, 2025* 6:00 p.m., ESPN+	No. 11	Fairfield WBCA Challenge	W 82–68	3–1	14 – Hull	7 – Harris	4 – Grant	Michelob Ultra Arena (2,116) Paradise, NV
November 20, 2025* 7:00 p.m., FloCollege	No. 14	at North Carolina A&T	W 85–50	4–1	14 – Tied	10 – Nivar	3 – Tied	Corbett Sports Center Greensboro, NC
November 23, 2025* 6:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 14	UNC Greensboro	W 94–48	5–1	19 – Toomey	7 – Toomey	4 – Tied	Carmichael Arena (2,418) Chapel Hill, NC
November 27, 2025* 11:00 a.m., FloCollege	No. 12	vs. South Dakota State Cancún Challenge Mayan Tournament	W 83–48	6–1	14 – Tied	12 – Nivar	5 – Nivar	Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya Cancún, MX
November 28, 2025 11:00 a.m., FloCollege	No. 12	vs. Kansas State Cancún Challenge Mayan Tournament	W 85–73	7–1	15 – Grant	7 – Tied	7 – Nivar	Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya (200) Cancún, MX
November 29, 2025 1:30 p.m., FloCollege	No. 12	vs. Columbia Cancún Challenge Mayan Tournament	W 80–63	8–1	19 – Grant	6 – Nivar	6 – Nivar	Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya Cancún, MX
December 4, 2025* 7:00 p.m., ESPN2	No. 11	at No. 2 Texas ACC–SEC Challenge	L 64–79	8–2	17 – Nivar	8 – Toomey	3 – Nivar	Moody Center (9,020) Austin, TX
December 7, 2025* 12:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 11	Boston University	W 82–40	9–2	14 – Aarnisalo	9 – Harris	4 – Tied	Carmichael Arena (3,139) Chapel Hill, NC
December 14, 2025 4:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 12	No. 22 Louisville	L 66–76 ^OT	9–3 (0–1)	13 – Henderson	9 – Harris	4 – Kelly	Carmichael Arena (2,622) Chapel Hill, NC
December 17, 2025* 8:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 18	UNC Wilmington	W 84–34	10–3	16 – Brooks	9 – Nivar	3 – Tied	Carmichael Arena (1,824) Chapel Hill, NC
December 21, 2025* 2:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 18	Charleston Southern	W 93–74	11–3	19 – Brooks	6 – Tied	6 – Nivar	Carmichael Arena (2,369) Chapel Hill, NC
December 29, 2025 8:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 16	at Boston College	W 90–39	12–3 (1–1)	19 – Harris	9 – Harris	5 – Grant	Conte Forum (1,213) Chestnut Hill, MA
January 1, 2026 12:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 16	California	W 71–55	13–3 (2–1)	16 – Nivar	10 – Harris	6 – Nivar	Carmichael Arena (3,036) Chapel Hill, NC
January 4, 2026 1:00 p.m., ESPN	No. 16	Stanford	L 71–77 ^OT	13–4 (2–2)	18 – Harris	7 – Tied	3 – Tied	Carmichael Arena (3,076) Chapel Hill, NC
January 11, 2026 1:00 p.m., ESPN	No. 22	at Notre Dame	L 50–73	13–5 (2–3)	14 – Harris	8 – Harris	2 – Brooks	Purcell Pavilion (8,101) Notre Dame, IN
January 15, 2026 7:00 p.m., ACCNX		Miami (FL)	W 73–62	14–5 (3–3)	24 – Kelly	6 – Tied	5 – Nivar	Carmichael Arena (3,320) Chapel Hill, NC
January 18, 2026 2:00 p.m., The CW		at Florida State	W 82–55	15–5 (4–3)	14 – Grant	6 – Harris	6 – Nivar	Donald L. Tucker Center (1,518) Tallahassee, FL
January 22, 2026 8:00 p.m., ACCN		at Georgia Tech	W 54–46	16–5 (5–3)	11 – Tied	15 – Toomey	4 – Aarnisalo	McCamish Pavilion (1,933) Atlanta, GA
January 25, 2026 12:00 p.m., The CW		Syracuse	W 77–71 ^OT	17–5 (6–3)	21 – Harris	11 – Harris	5 – Kelly	Carmichael Arena (467) Chapel Hill, NC
February 2, 2026 6:00 p.m., ESPN2	No. 25	at NC State Rivalry	W 61–59	18–5 (7–3)	18 – Grant	9 – Harris	6 – Nivar	Reynolds Coliseum (5,500) Raleigh, NC
February 5, 2026 6:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 25	Clemson	W 53–44	19–5 (8–3)	17 – Harris	10 – Harris	7 – Nivar	Carmichael Arena (3,024) Chapel Hill, NC
February 8, 2026 2:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 25	at Wake Forest	W 84–56	20–5 (9–3)	21 – Brooks	8 – Nivar	7 – Nivar	LJVM Coliseum (2,284) Winston-Salem, NC
February 12, 2026 6:00 p.m., ACCN	No. 21	SMU	W 94–42	21–5 (10–3)	15 – Grant	9 – Tied	5 – Tied	Carmichael Arena (2,450) Chapel Hill, NC
February 15, 2026 1:00 p.m., ABC	No. 21	at No. 11 Duke Rivalry						Cameron Indoor Stadium Durham, NC
February 19, 2026 6:00 p.m., ACCN		at Virginia Tech						Cassell Coliseum Blacksburg, VA
February 22, 2026 12:00 p.m., ACCN		Pittsburgh Play4Kay						Carmichael Arena Chapel Hill, NC
February 26, 2026 7:00 p.m., ACCNX		at Virginia						John Paul Jones Arena Charlottesville, VA
March 1, 2026 12:00 p.m., ESPN		Duke Rivalry						Carmichael Arena Chapel Hill, NC
ACC tournament
*		vs.						Gas South Arena Duluth, GA
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern.

Rankings

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
RV = Received votes
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Final
AP	11	11	14	12	11	12	18	16	16*	22	RV	RV	RV	25	21
Coaches	11	8	12	10	10	11	16	15	15	18	23	21	23	21	21

*AP did not release a week 8 poll.

References

^ "WBB's Kayla McPherson To Retire From Basketball". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics. August 26, 2025. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
^ Rosenberg, Benjamin (April 16, 2025). "Mississippi State adds Trayanna Crisp from North Carolina in transfer portal". The Commercial Dispatch. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
^ McGavic, Matthew (April 4, 2025). "Former Louisville Forward Nyla Harris Announces Transfer Destination". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved September 26, 2025.
^ "Women's Basketball Inks Elina Aarnisalo From UCLA". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics. April 15, 2025. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
^ "2025 High School Girls' Basketball Recruits - North Carolina". ESPN.com. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
^ "2025–26 North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball schedule". goheels.com. North Carolina Tar Heels. Retrieved October 5, 2025.

[1] "WBB's Kayla McPherson To Retire From Basketball". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics. August 26, 2025. Retrieved October 5, 2025.

[2] Rosenberg, Benjamin (April 16, 2025). "Mississippi State adds Trayanna Crisp from North Carolina in transfer portal". The Commercial Dispatch. Retrieved October 5, 2025.

[3] McGavic, Matthew (April 4, 2025). "Former Louisville Forward Nyla Harris Announces Transfer Destination". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved September 26, 2025.

[4] "Women's Basketball Inks Elina Aarnisalo From UCLA". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics. April 15, 2025. Retrieved October 5, 2025.

[5] "2025 High School Girls' Basketball Recruits - North Carolina". ESPN.com. Retrieved October 5, 2025.

[6] "2025–26 North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball schedule". goheels.com. North Carolina Tar Heels. Retrieved October 5, 2025.

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North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball
Venues	Carmichael Auditorium (1974–2008, 2009–present) Dean Smith Center (2008–2009)
Rivalries	Duke NC State Wake Forest
Culture & lore	Rameses The Marching Tar Heels Jumpman Invitational Tobacco Road
People	Head coaches
Seasons	1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25 2025–26
NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearance in italics