THE FLATS – A new season gets underway bright and early Monday morning as Georgia Tech women’s basketball hosts Hofstra for Education Day inside McCamish Pavilion.
The Yellow Jackets enter the new campaign returning four of their primary five starters from 2025-26, including 2026 All-ACC First Team selection Talayah Walker. She led the Jackets in scoring last season, averaging 17.5 points per game. The junior guard was named to the Jersey Mike's Naismith Trophy Women's College Player of the Year Watch List Thursday.
Year two of the Karen Blair Era tips off against the Pride, who was the Colonial Athletic Association’s runner-up last season, at 10:30 a.m. on ACC Network Extra. Nov. 2 is the earliest the season opener has been played in program history, besting the previous mark of Nov. 4 (2024-25 season).
Tech’s season opener is also the first NCAA Division I women’s college basketball game played in the United States this season.
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (0-0, 0-0 ACC) vs. Hofstra Pride (0-0, 0-0 CAA)
- Monday, Nov. 2 | 10:30 a.m. ET
- TV: ACC Network Extra
- PxP: Andy Demetra | Analyst: Fallon Stokes
- Radio: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets App | SiriusXM ### or on the SiriusXM App | Listen Here
- PxP: Richard Musterer | Analyst: Kurt Hoyt
- Live Stats
- Game Notes: Georgia Tech | Hofstra
- Media Center
- Purchase Tickets
SERIES HISTORY
Monday marks the fifth all-time meeting between Georgia Tech and Hofstra, with the Jackets holding a 4-0 lead. Tech is 3-0 in Atlanta and won the last meeting on Nov. 24, 2021 (65-32).
Kyndal Walker (at Maryland) and Antonia Bates (at Rutgers) are the only two Yellow Jackets that have suited up against the Pride.
INSIDE THE SCHEDULE
Karen Blair’s squad will never back down from a challenge, and the 2026-27 schedule is full of challenging opponents from top-to-bottom. The Jackets have 16 games (15 opponents) against teams that made the 2026 NCAA Tournament, tied for the most in the ACC (Notre Dame) and seventh-most among Power Four programs.
Tech faces six of those teams in the non-conference and eight inside McCamish Pavilion. Seven of Tech’s 2026-27 foes (Duke, Louisville, Princeton, West Virginia, Samford, TCU and Hofstra) either won their conferences tournament and/or regular season title and/or were the runner-up in the conference title game.
HOME COOKIN’
McCamish Pavilion was a difficult place for opponents last season, where Tech produced the second-best home FG defense in the ACC (34.7%) and the second-best home three-point defense (24.7%). The Jackets’ nine home games with at least 30 defensive boards were tied for the third-most in the country and Tech led the ACC with nine home games accruing at least 20 assists last season.
The Yellow Jackets are 156-68 (.696) all-time inside McCamish Pavilion and 93-12 (.886) against non-conference opponents. Against in-state foes at home, the Yellow Jackets are 53-12 since 1983-84, 40-5 since 2000-01, and 20-4 inside McCamish Pavilion.
THE 2026-27 YELLOW JACKETS
Tech returns seven from last season, four of its starting five and over 50 percent of both its minutes played and points scored. That number more than doubles from the returners Coach Blair had in her first season (2025-26), where Tech brought back just three from the previous season.
Talayah Walker, Inés Noguero, La’Nya Foster, Erica Moon, Ariadna Termis, Leyre Urdiain and Déborah Mukeba are back in White and Gold in 2026-27, more than doubling the returning production that Tech had going into 2025-26 (3 to 7). Urdiain and Mukeba will be making their debut in a Tech uniform this season.
In addition to Tech’s seven returners, Blair’s Yellow Jackets welcome seven newcomers to The Flats this season. Fifth-year Antonia Bates (G/F, Rutgers), senior Anna Conza (G, Oglethorpe), junior Kyndal Walker (G, Maryland), sophomores Sofia Muñoz (G, UAB), Penda Dieng (F, Xavier), Jordan Ode (G, Michigan State) and freshman Autumn Washington all join the Jackets.
2025-26 RECAP
Georgia Tech looks to build on a 2025-26 campaign where it won 10 games on home court and earned a trip to the 2026 WBIT. Head Coach Karen Blair became the first head coach in program history to lead Tech to a postseason berth in their first season.
Tech captured key victories over No. 18 Notre Dame, Clemson, Miami, Stanford and an ACC Tournament win over Florida State in Blair’s first season. Talayah Walker led the offensive charge, scoring 576 points - the most by a Jacket since 2015-16.
Georgia Tech posted the highest average attendance in the program’s history at McCamish Pavilion last season, and the Jan. 11 game vs. Clemson was the second-highest attended game in Tech history for its current venue (6,125).
UP NEXT
The Yellow Jackets continue their six-game homestand to open the 2026-27 on Thursday, Nov. 5 against Samford. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. inside McCamish Pavilion and live on ACC Network Extra.