From historic March Madness appearances to record-breaking performances, UC San Diego sports shined this season. The UCSD Guardian’s Sports section looked back on some of the most fascinating teams on campus this year.
Men’s basketball — Henry Stanger, Senior Staff Writer
Men’s basketball’s 2024-25 season was magical. The team won the Big West regular season and the postseason tournament, securing a bid to play in March Madness. These accomplishments — all firsts in program history — occurred in just its first year of postseason eligibility.
Led by Big West Player of the Year senior forward Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones, Naismith Defensive Player of the Year finalist senior guard Hayden Gray, and E*TRADE Men’s 3-Point Championship winner senior guard Tyler McGhie, UCSD overwhelmed the Big West. After 12 straight wins early in the season, including a win against then-undefeated Utah State, UCSD lost two of its next three games to Big West rivals UC Irvine and UC Riverside. Those would be the team’s last losses until the NCAA tournament. The Tritons were perfect in their final 13 Big West games. Their dominance continued into the Big West Championship, where they breezed past UC Santa Barbara and UCI to claim the conference title.
In Denver, the Tritons went blow for blow with the higher-ranked Wolverines. UCSD started slowly and quickly found themselves trailing, but the Tritons roared back in the second half — even taking a slim lead at one point. However, Michigan retook the lead, and McGhie’s game-tying attempt clanged off the back rim at the buzzer, ending the Tritons’ season. With students overflowing out of Dirty Birds to catch a glimpse of the game and crossing out every “M” on campus in the days leading up to the tilt, men’s basketball made UCSD feel like a sports school for a fleeting moment.
Unfortunately, bigger programs took note of UCSD’s Big West dominance, with New Mexico poaching head coach Eric Olen. Tait-Jones, McGhie, and Gray left via the transfer portal or NCAA ineligibility. UCSD’s new head coach, Clint Allard, will have his work cut out for him to rebuild the squad and defend the Tritons’ Big West title next season.
Women’s basketball — Ryan Kirton, Senior Staff Writer
As men’s basketball blazed through its non-conference schedule, the women’s team struggled to win a game early in the season. UCSD started off the year 1-8, seemingly putting a Big West Championship out of reach.
However, any early doubts were squashed once conference play began. Led by sophomore phenom and starting point guard Sumayah Sugapong, and the veteran leadership of senior forward Kayanna Spriggs and graduate student guard Parker Montgomery, the Tritons rallied to go 13-7 in conference play, entering the Big West Championship as the No. 4 seed.
Embracing its underdog role, the Tritons finished off the year with the most improbable string of games in team history. It began with a 29-point performance from Sugapong in a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback against Cal Poly. She followed that up with a last-second layup to upset top-seeded Hawai’i, sending the Tritons to the Big West Championship final. The deciding game culminated in a full team effort to stymie UC Davis, clinching a March Madness bid.
While the Tritons’ March Madness run was short-lived — falling to Southern University in the First Four — their Division-I debut went about as well as it could have. With junior guard Sabrina Ma and redshirt sophomore guard Gracie Gallegos returning next year, the Tritons will look to build on their success.
Men’s volleyball — Abigail Kapur, Sports Co-Editor
Men’s volleyball kicked off the 2025 season with six straight victories — the first four in home sweeps — in its best season start since 1996. The 2025 Big West Men’s Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll had ranked UCSD last in the league; the Tritons took it as a challenge.
Senior opposite hitter Anthony Cherfan and graduate student setter Bryce Dvorak powered UCSD’s momentum, notching a seven-game hot streak that included wins against No. 8 Stanford and No. 4 UC Irvine.
After an 18-12 season, the Tritons were ranked No. 10 in the nation — 10 spots above where they landed in the 2024 AVCA National Collegiate Poll. UCSD entered the Big West Championship as the No. 4 seed, defeating No. 5 seed UCSB in a five-set thriller. The win sent the Tritons to the semifinals for the first time in four years, but top seed Long Beach State ended UCSD’s run the next day. It was the third time that week the Tritons had fallen to the Beach, who would go on to win the Big West title and the NCAA Championship.
The nine graduating Tritons who formed the foundation of UCSD’s impressive 2025 season leave behind a high standard for the 2026 team to match. But with head coach Brad Rostratter and standout athletes like junior outside hitter Leo Pravednikov at the helm, UCSD will seek to improve on its winning record next year.
Softball — Alan Zhang, Sports Co-Editor
The first few weeks of UCSD’s Nikki Palmer era of Triton softball were disappointing, to say the least. Going into a mid-March series against UC Riverside, the Tritons sat at 3-18. Then, things started clicking.
Senior pitcher India Caldwell, who pitched more innings this season than all other Triton pitchers combined, finished the year with a sub-three ERA and an All-Big West First Team nod. On the offensive side, the Tritons didn’t fare as well — they posted a 0.699 on-base plus slugging, the 10th best in the conference, and scored only 3.6 runs per game. While the bats never really got hot, UCSD improved as the season went on, and stellar pitching from Caldwell helped the Tritons secure close wins.
The Tritons finished with a 16-32 overall record but a 13-14 record in Big West play, enough to earn a spot in the Big West Championship. UCSD beat eventual champions UCSB, held a late lead against Cal State Northridge before squandering it, and ended the season with a rematch loss against UCSB. While it wasn’t always pretty, the team showed remarkable improvement and is poised to make a splash in the Big West next year.
Men’s water polo — Senji Torrey, Senior Staff Writer
Men’s water polo thrived this season, making it all the way to the Big West Championship final after amassing a 3-2 conference record in a 17-12 overall campaign. As per tradition, the team began the season with a slew of tournaments, including the Princeton Invitational, where sophomore attacker Landon Akerstrom netted a career-high six goals against Wagner. He matched the figure a week later against No. 5 Cal and finished the season as the Tritons’ leading goalscorer. The tourney cycle yielded the team’s most dominant victories, at least on paper, with 22 goal deficit matches against Iona and Chapman.
With a 10-8 record and a three-game winning streak heading into conference play, the Tritons nearly took out No. 7 UC Irvine in their opening matchup, but came up one goal short. UCSD came roaring back soon after with consecutive ranked victories over No. 14 UCSB and No. 11 UC Davis to finish the season with a winning record and second seed in the Big West Championship. The Aggies met the Tritons again in the semifinals, where senior utility player Ante Buzov netted all four of his shot attempts to lead the Tritons to a 13-8 win and a finals berth.
The final against Long Beach did not go exactly as planned, as three unanswered Beach goals in the second period wedged a distance the Tritons could not make up. In the end, the Tritons could only watch as Long Beach won 10-8 and hoisted the Big West trophy.
While disappointing, the program’s recent move to the Big West from the lower-level Western Water Polo Association just a season prior makes this season’s success that much more meaningful. With 11 departing seniors, next season will be another challenge and opportunity for this promising team to grow.
Fencing — Emily Gjevre, Contributing Writer
It was an incredible year for both men and women’s fencing, who swept competitions and made program history.
The season started off strong at the BladeRunner Tournament in UCSD’s Liontree Arena. The tournament yielded six top-20 placements, five top-10 placements, three podiums, and gold for junior Jacob Levy in foil.
The team continued its hot streak at the West Invitational, with the men finishing 4-2 and women finishing 6-3. The tournament included a 16-11 win over Stanford — UCSD’s first since 2021. The Tritons’ next competition was the Philadelphia Invitational, where they had a strong showing by both teams — the women put up a 4-3 record with two ranked victories, and the men ended with a 3-5 mark that included three wins over ranked opponents. In its last tournament of the regular season, men’s fencing put up a 7-3 record, and the women’s side put up a 5-5 record.
The Tritons shone even brighter in the postseason. In the NCAA West Regional Championship, multiple Tritons took home first place: freshman Katherine Kim in women’s foil, sophomore Alexandra Cody in women’s saber, and junior Sunny Sharma in men’s epee.
The Tritons won both the men and women’s Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships, making history and taking home their first team titles. Sophomore Zehra Anbarlilar in foil, junior Zara Fearns in saber, and Levy in foil all won individual titles.
At the NCAA Championship, Kim finished seventh in women’s foil and came home with the Second Team All-American honors — the third best Triton female finish ever.
In 2025, the team demonstrated its ability to consistently excel even against tough opponents, establishing momentum that will carry the Tritons to even greater heights next year.
