Week 8 of the 2026 season saw multiple surprising upsets across the college softball world, and that certainly carried over into the Mountain West Conference, with projected preseason contenders Nevada, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Boise State each being upset by inferior teams, the latter three losing their respective series to underdog competition. With all that being said, let’s take a look at the current conference standings heading into Week 9 of the season.
Standings (After Week 8 of 14)
- Grand Canyon Lopes – 36-2, 9-0 MW
- Nevada Wolf Pack – 24-12, 6-3 MW
- UNLV Lady Rebels – 18-17, 5-4 MW
- Colorado State Rams – 17-17, 5-4 MW
- San Diego State Aztecs – 19-15, 4-5 MW
- Boise State Broncos – 18-20, 4-5 MW
- Fresno State Bulldogs – 14-15, 3-6 MW
- New Mexico Lobos – 15-19, 3-6 MW
- Utah State Aggies – 14-20, 3-6 MW
- San Jose State Spartans – 11-21, 3-6 MW
Without further ado, let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly from Week 8 of the 2026 season.
The Good
#17/23 GCU Lopes (36-2, 9-0 MW)
Game Results: 3-0 (3-0 away)
at Utah State (14-20) – W, 15-3
at Utah State (14-20) – W, 10-1
at Utah State (14-20) – W, 7-0
After a one-week break, we are back to our permanent residents in this slot: Grand Canyon. Turns out, GCU is the only team in the conference that knows how to take care of its basement dwellers, yet another thing that they have figured out in their first year. GCU has now swept its first three Mountain West conference series, still the only team in the MW that has swept even one series.
Games 1 and 2 featured the Lopes going into the top of the seventh holding narrow leads over their northern foes, (5-3 and 5-1), before massive offensive explosions in that final frame made their wins look even more dominant than most already expected them to be. As for Game 3, the Lopes held the Aggies to just two hits all game in a complete-game shutout, scoring seven runs on just six hits in a game the Lopes hardly had to try in.
GCU compiled 35 hits (.372 average) across the series, and most hitters had a field day against an awful USU pitching staff. The stars of the show here were Tinley Lucas and Trinity Martin, the former going 6-for-9 with nine RBIs, and the latter going 5-for-9, with Martin’s six RBIs all coming in Game 2. As for GCU’s pitching, literally everyone had a great series, but the best of the best were Abi Jones and Natalie Fritz, who combined for an ERA of 0.00 across 12.2 innings, with 15 combined strikeouts against zero walks. In fact, the Lopes did not walk a single Aggie batter the entire series, which is a remarkable feat, even by their lofty standards in that department. Jones ended up taking home MW Freshman of the Week honors as well, merely the cherry on top of it all.
The Lopes will host the Wolf Pack this weekend for a showdown between the reigning regular season champs and the likely soon-to-be regular season champs. Nevada has already taken down a ranked team on the road this season (#18 Oregon), so they have a history in this realm that the Lopes should look out for. If the Lopes can win this series, I would consider it a successful weekend. Now, if they sweep the Wolf Pack, then they may just set sail to a 25-0 conference record in their debut MW season.
New Mexico Lobos (15-19, 3-6 MW)
Game Results: 2-1 (2-1 home)
vs. San Diego State (19-15) – W, 9-5
vs. San Diego State (19-15) – W, 7-4
vs. San Diego State (19-15) – L, 10-3
Yes, the Aztecs are a complete mess right now, but that doesn’t really take away from what New Mexico did this weekend: their first series victory against San Diego State since 2018, sending SDSU away to the Pac-12 with another embarrassing defeat.
Games 1 (9-5 win) and 2 (7-4 win) saw the Lobos lead the majority of the way, jumping out to an 8-2 lead in Game 1 before outscoring the Aztecs in every inning of Game 2. Game 3 was one-sided in favor of the Aztecs, as the Lobos gave up eight unanswered runs after jumping out to a 2-0 lead, being shut down by SDSU pitcher Ava Schaffel at every turn in the 10-3 series-closing loss. Yes, the series may have ended on a sour note, but the Lobos went from being two games back of a tournament sport to just one this weekend, which was a much-needed boost for Nicole Orgeron’s squad.
Interestingly, the Lobos did not have more hits than the Aztecs in any of the three games, only tying seven hits apiece in Game 2. The Lobos were not really led at the plate by anybody, as DeNae Vasquez-Dickson’s two hits in Game 1 was the only multi-hit performance by the Lobos this weekend. New Mexico’s main strategy was to simply let the Aztecs give them bases for free, drawing 14 walks across the weekend while allowing just seven themselves. The best example of this strategy in action was in the bottom of the first in Game 1, where the Aztecs walked the Lobos’ first three batters, after which UNM scored two runs on back-to-back sacrifice flies.
Pitching was a bit unusual for the Lobos this weekend, as both wins were credited to backup pitchers Arianna Capek and Caprice Barela, while both saves were credited to starters Caitlin Benningfield and McKenna Guest. No Lobo pitcher had particularly great stats, especially in Game 3, but this unit did more than enough overall to keep their western rivals at bay.
New Mexico travels to Boise this weekend for a bout with the Broncos, who just lost two of three on the road at Colorado State. I would expect the Lobos to fall back to Earth a bit here since the Broncos, while inconsistent, do have a much better hitting core than the Lobos do. If UNM avoids getting swept here, I would consider it a successful weekend for them.
The Bad
Fresno State Bulldogs (14-15, 3-6 MW)
Game Results: 1-2 (1-2 home)
vs. UNLV (18-17) – W, 9-3
vs. UNLV (18-17) – L, 5-4
vs. UNLV (18-17) – L, 5-3
UNLV took down Fresno State this weekend, continuing the downward spiral the ‘Dogs have been on for the past few weeks. I could not have been more incorrect about the Bulldogs this season. I expected this team to be the best of the rest, a team that could challenge the top three teams in the league from time to time. Instead, the Bulldogs look like one of the worst teams in the conference, having now lost three straight conference series, including two at home, to start league play.
Game 1 was an easy series-opening win where the ‘Dogs never trailed, starting off a series with a win for the first time this season. With a series win in their sights, the Bulldogs unraveled, losing Games 2 and 3 by a combined three runs, scoring less in their two losses combined than they did in Game 1 alone. These two games were even worse than they looked, though, as the ‘Dogs combined for 22 hits in two games where they scored just seven runs.
At least two Bulldogs had two hits in each game, with Mallory Vancleave being the only ‘Dog to have multiple of said games. The production came from all across the lineup—except when there were runners in scoring position. Whereas Fresno State hit 23-for-62 (.371) across their two losses, that average dropped to just 5-for-20 (.250) with runners in scoring position, two of those hits being singles that merely advanced runners without scoring.
The Bulldogs’ three errors across the series did not help, but a main problem here was the Bulldogs’ pitching staff. Lauryn Carranco had two complete games in three days, but allowed seven total earned runs, four of them in the Game 3 loss. Freshman Alyssa Loza single-handedly lost Game 2 for the ‘Dogs, allowing five earned runs in the first inning of Game 1, failing to record a single out.
Fresno State has now lost eight of their last 13 games heading into a road series against a chippy San Jose State team that just stole a game off of the top-flight Wolf Pack in Reno. I do not expect that the Bulldogs will win this series, given their recent performances, along with the fact that the lowly Spartans play with a palpable heart and passion you can only find in horrible teams that love and play for each other.
The Ugly
San Diego State Aztecs (19-15, 4-5 MW)
Game Results: 1-2 (1-2 away)
at New Mexico (15-18) – L, 9-5
at New Mexico (15-18) – L, 7-4
at New Mexico (15-18) – W, 10-3
There are cold streaks, and then there is what San Diego State is doing right now. After weeks of backsliding, the Aztecs have officially reached a new low, losing their series on the road against a New Mexico team previously 1-5 in conference play, and who the Aztecs had not lost a series to since 2018. The Aztecs are tumbling down the conference standings, and are, in my opinion, realistically out of contention for an at-large bid, even if they were to somehow sweep GCU. I think this is finally the year SDSU’s four-year streak of NCAA tournament bids comes to an end.
After the first game of the series was delayed due to heavy win, the first two games became a Saturday doubleheader. Game 1 saw SDSU give up six runs in the bottom of the third inning, a gap they were unable to close the rest of the way in a 9-5 loss. Game 2 saw each team score in the first, third, and fifth innings, with New Mexico scoring exactly one more run every time in a 7-4 loss, which clinched a humiliating series defeat. As for Game 3, the Aztecs allowed two Lobo runs in the first, then scored eight unanswered runs themselves to score a 10-3 win, somewhat salvaging what could have been a legendarily bad weekend.
The Aztecs combined to go 28-for-88 at the plate this weekend (.318 average). Kalia Pollard easily gets “best of the worst” honors here, going 8-for-9 with eight RBIs. It was my belief that Pollard should have been named MW Player of the Week, but that she didn’t because SDSU lost. Remove Pollard from the lineup and the Aztecs went a dismal .253 at the plate, and this weekend overall looks much worse for them.
This belief was shattered by the fact that Ava Schaffel was named MW Pitcher of the Week, a questionable pick until you look at the rest of her teammates. Schaffel had a 1.45 ERA across 9.2 innings of work, being the engine to the lone Aztec win on Sunday (6.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 Ks), but that production is far exceeded by each and every GCU pitcher, particularly Natalie Fritz and Abi Jones. A better agument for Schaffel here is that Faith Jordan, Matti Kwarta, and Key-annah Pu’a gave up a combined 14 earned runs in their 8.0 innings of work (12.25 ERA), so if not for Shaffel’s performance, SDSU would have almost certainly been run-ruled in Game 1, and likely would have lost Game 3 as well.
Overall, it was a massive disappointment this weekend for the Aztecs, but that really fits quite well with their entire season thus far. The Aztecs will host the struggling Utah State Aggies this weekend. USU has lost two straight conference series at home to Nevada and GCU, giving up over 10 runs per game during that span. Once again, the Aztecs could get back on track during this series, and this is one where they are even more likely to do so, but my confidence in the quality of this team faded a very long time ago.
