The 2025–26 Western Illinois Leathernecks women's basketball team represented Western Illinois University during the 2025–26 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Leathernecks, who are led by 15th-year head coach JD Gravina, played their home games at Western Hall in Macomb, Illinois, as third-year members of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).
The Leathernecks finished the season 26–6, 16–4 in OVC play, to finish in first place. In the OVC tournament, they defeated eight seed Southeast Missouri State in the semifinals and beat second-seeded Lindenwood in the championship game. In the NCAA tournament, the Leathernecks lost to North Carolina in the first round.
Previous season The Leathernecks finished the 2024–25 season 17–17, 8–12 in OVC play, to finish in seventh place. In the OVC tournament, they defeated UT Martin in the first round and Eastern Illinois in the quarterfinals before losing to Lindenwood in the semifinals. They received an invitation of the WNIT where they defeated Lipscomb in the first round before losing to Illinois State in the second round.
Preseason On October 14, 2025, the OVC released their preseason coaches poll. Western Illinois was picked to finish third in the OVC regular season, receiving four of the 22 first-place votes.
Preseason rankings OVC preseason pollPredicted finishTeamVotes (1st place) 1 Southern Indiana 179 (22) 2 Tennessee Tech 175 (12) 3 Western Illinois 166 (4) 4 Southern Indiana 147 5 Eastern Illinois 121 6 UT Martin 117 7 Little Rock 110 8 Tennessee State 78 9 Southeast Missouri State 51 T-8 Morehead State 33 SIU Edwardsville
Source:
Watch List Each OVC team selected two "Watch List" for their team. Players to WatchPlayerPositionYearAddi BrownfieldGuardSeniorAllie Meadows Source:
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=""| Non-conference regular season
!colspan=12 style=""| OVC regular season
!colspan=12 style=""|
!colspan=12 style=""|
Sources:
References