Less than a week after the 2025-26 season ended for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women’s basketball team, the Mocs are beginning to get a glimpse of next season where their roster is concerned.
It’s unlikely to include their two best players from this past winter.
Junior point guard Caia Elisaldez and sophomore forward Gianna Corbitt, each of whom earned All-Southern Conference recognition in some form the past two seasons, plan to enter the NCAA transfer portal, according to a report from On3.com’s Talia Goodman. The portal will have a 15-day window for women’s basketball players to enter April 6-20, although teams can sign athletes after those dates and athletes can return to their previous teams even after entering the portal.
The 5-foot-5 Elisaldez, who is from Whittier, California, was the primary ball-handler for the Mocs the past two seasons, when they compiled 37 wins and played in the SoCon tournament title game both times. She averaged 17.0 points, 5.1 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game in 2025-26, when she was the SoCon women’s basketball player of the year in addition to earning her second straight All-SoCon first-team selection, having averaged 14.1 points and 4.9 assists as a sophomore.
Elisaldez improved as a shooter from each season to the next during her time at UTC, going from 45% from the field as a freshman (when she played in all 33 games and made three starts) to 49.6% as a junior, when she helped lead the Mocs to a share of the program’s 21st SoCon regular-season championship, 20 wins overall and a trip to the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. UTC lost in the WBIT’s first round at No. 1 seed North Dakota State last Thursday, falling 75-62 despite a career-high 33 points from Elisaldez.
(READ MORE: UTC women’s star Caia Elisaldez takes on team leader role this season)
The 6-1 Corbitt, who is from Oakland Park, Florida, averaged 15.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game in 2025-26, going over the 30-point mark twice and scoring 29 in another game. She shot 51% from the field and was the team’s top 3-point threat, making 59 at a 43% rate and receiving All-SoCon first-team recognition a season after being named to the league’s all-freshman team.
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“They’re elite players, and they score a lot and they are able to defend, but I have also the two most competitive players in the conference,” UTC coach Deandra Schirmer said after a SoCon tournament semifinal win over Furman earlier this month. “… What’s made this season so special is there’s a lot of very, very talented scorers, there’s a lot of very, very talented defensive players in the league, but they ain’t got the competitiveness and the leadership of these two. I’m just proud to see them grow in that capacity.”
Corbitt and Elisaldez were staples of Schirmer’s first two years in Chattanooga, but she’ll also have to replace 5-10 guard/forward Kalifa Ford, who ranked third on the team in scoring in 2025-26 at 7.8 points per game but is out of eligibility. This past season was Ford’s seventh in college basketball (standard and medical redshirts included), as she spent her first three at Oklahoma Baptist and her next two at Georgia’s Valdosta State before following Schirmer from the Division II ranks to UTC.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.