After a highly successful debut last season, First Lady Jean Callahan is rolling out Year 2 of her initiative rallying women leaders from campus and community to support the Pacific Tigers women’s basketball team.

The #WomenSupportingWomen group last season helped drive home attendance in the West Coast Conference to No. 2 in women’s basketball.

Callahan invites women leaders from the university and community to a pre-game reception at either the President’s Residence or the Alex G. Spanos Center. The group has a special section adjacent to the baseline on the home team side of the court where they cheer on the Tigers.

“I’m so thrilled about the great response last season from Stockton business and civic leaders and Pacific Regents, deans, vice presidents and many other Pacificans. We want to build on that great success with the new season,” said the First Lady, a fan of Coach Bradley Davis’s team since her arrival at University of the Pacific in 2020. “These are amazing young women—on and off the court—and we want to support them.”

This year, the #WomenSupportingWomen group is adding a networking and development dinner to honor the student-athletes and further enhance their connection to the women leaders now and in the future.

“To watch these bonds between our student-athletes and women leaders take root and grow is really inspiring,” the First Lady said. “Mentorship is critical throughout our careers and lives, but particularly during the college years. Additionally, we get just as much out of these wonderful relationships as our student-athletes.”

The current 15-player squad has student-athletes from four states (California, Colorado, Texas and Washington) and five countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, Serbia and Sweden) enrolled in majors from biology, business analytics, communications and psychology to health and exercise science, marketing, music industry and sociology.

The Tigers had a 3.45 combined GPA last year, with 11 players on the West Coast Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll and six recognized with WCC All-Academic accolades.

The team also excelled on the court last year, reaching the second round of the National Invitational Tournament. Three team leaders and NCAA career 1,000-point scorers—Elizabeth Elliott ’25, Anaya James ’25 and Liz Smith ’24—are returning for their final season with the Tigers.

There are ten games remaining in the 2024-25 season:

• Dec. 28 vs. Saint Mary’s
• Dec. 30 vs. Washington State
• Jan. 9 vs. Santa Clara
• Jan. 16 vs. LMU
• Jan. 18 vs. University of San Francisco, after game reception with the team
• Jan. 25 vs. Oregon State
• Feb. 8 vs. Pepperdine
• Feb. 13 vs. San Diego
• Feb. 27 vs. Gonzaga
• March 1 vs. Portland, Senior Night reception following game

“Women supporting women is something that Jean has brought to our games that has really helped us, really uplifted us,” Smith said. “They sit courtside so we can hear their voices. We can always hear them cheering for us, and it truly uplifts us during the game, especially in moments that we need a lot of energy.”

Coach Davis said the support helps the players on and off the court.

“Not only has it helped support winning on the floor and supporting the team that we have, but it’s also a mentorship opportunity, a mentorship possibility,” Davis said. “We are truly growing young leaders on our team not just as basketball players, but young leaders. And for them to have real world examples of women who are highly successful in their own rights in their own fields is an inspiration as to what’s next and what comes after basketball.”