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The 2018-19 campaign was once again full of Anteater team and individual accomplishments. UCI made two NCAA appearances and logged two tournament wins, had three Big West regular season titles, seven All-Americans, five Big West Players of the Year, two Big West Coaches of the Year, two conference Newcomers of the Year, 73 all-conference performers as well as 21 all-academic honorees.



Here are some of the highlights:

NCAA PROUD
Men's soccer started the year with their sixth NCAA appearance. The 'Eaters advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a win over Grand Canyon on penalty kicks, reaching the second round in every NCAA trip.

The men's basketball team capped its historic season with not only an NCAA appearance, but it's first-ever victory with a 70-64 win over fourth-seed and No. 18 nationally-ranked Kansas State in the first round. The win was also UCI's second over a Power Five school after defeating Texas A&M in November.

BEST OF THE BIG WEST
Men's soccer, men's basketball and women's water polo all captured Big West titles in 2018-19.

Dan Klatt's water polo team won the Big West regular-season title for the eighth time in program history. The Anteaters have more regular-season titles than any other Big West team. UCI earned the No. 1 seed at the Big West Championships and advanced to the championship game against Hawai'i for the second-straight year.

Men's soccer earned the Big West regular season title for the fifth time, while men's basketball won the regular season for the sixth time, and the Big West Tournament crown for the second time.

The men's basketball team beat Cal State Fullerton 92-64 in the championship game, the largest margin of victory in Big West Tournament history.

Individually, track & field athlete Barbara Coward was a Big West double champion, winning both the hammer throw and discus. She was UC Irvine's first-ever hammer champion, and became the first Big West athlete to sweep both events at the conference meet since 2015.
 
IN THE RANKINGS
Several UCI teams were ranked nationally this year, including women's water polo (7^th), men's volleyball (8^th) and men's water polo (15^th) holding down spots in the final polls.

Men's soccer was ranked for seven weeks during the season, reaching as high as No. 13.
 
Ben Orloff's baseball team was ranked in 12 of 15 weeks appearing in all polls for a majority of that run with its highest ranking reaching No. 15.
 
Men's basketball received votes in the final two National Coaches' Polls of the season (Week 19 & Week 20).

FAST STARTS
The men's volleyball team started the season with a 5-0 record and was ranked as high as No. 2 in the country. In the opening win over Loyola, outside hitter Joel Schneidmiller pounded a career-high 28 kills, which were the second most in the country this year. The Anteaters opened with a 13-2 record, behind Schniedmiller who earned Big West Player of the Week three times and Defensive Player of the Week once.

Last fall, the women's tennis team started the season on the East Coast and jumped out to a 7-2 record, plying in five different states. As a team, the Anteaters were over .800 in singles (41-10) and doubles (21-5) in the month of October. Flora Amiri, Danielle Garrido and Gillian Parker all tied for the team lead with 5-0 records in singles play, while Alyssia Fossorier and Jessica Tsukiji also went 4-0 in their collegiate debuts.

Women's golfer Janet Yeo finished second at the opening tournament, the Ptarmigan Ram Classic. The senior carded a three-round total of 211 (69-72-70), including a career-low 69 on the first round, ending the tournament just one stroke shy of the medalist.

Women's basketball started the year 7-0 for the first time in program history, and improved to 9-2 by early December. Their success did not go unnoticed as they made their debut in the College Insider Mid-Major Poll at No. 24, and rose to as high as No. 15.
 
The baseball team reached 20 wins in the first 25 games, the second-quickest of any program.

RECORD BREAKING PERFORMANCES
Men's basketball forward Jonathan Galloway ended his UCI career with the most wins (98), games played (146) and rebounds (969) in program history. His 146 games played are also the most in Big West history.

Women's basketball player Andee Ritter made her final regular season game one to remember as she broke UC Irvine's all-time records in both 3-pointers made and steals. The guard added to her school-record totals in the Big West Tournament, closing out her career with 202 threes made and 196 steals.
 
Baseball player Brandon Lewis tied the single season record with 14 home runs as he was one of seven Anteaters from the squad that selected in the MLB Draft.
 
Track & field athlete Barbara Coward broke her own school records multiple times throughout the season, finishing her career with program-bests of 196-07 in the hammer and 186-04 in the discus. She also broke UCI's indoor record in the weight throw, beating the previous standard by over a foot with a toss of 57-10.5 at the MPSF Championships.
 
Guard Max Hazzard, the MVP of the Big West Men's Basketball Tournament, hit a Bren Events Center record 10 three-pointers in UCI's 86-52 win over Denver. He ended the night with a career-high 32 points.
 
As a team, the men's basketball squad set a slew of school records in 2018-19 including the most wins (31) and longest winning streak (17 games) in program history. The Anteaters became the first Big West team, current or former, to win 30 games in a season since national runner-up UNLV went 34-1 in 1990-01.

NICELY DONE NEWCOMERS
In her first career 6000-meter race, freshman cross country runner Hannah Chau finished 14th in a field of 170 runners at the UC Riverside Invitational. Chau clocked in at 20:59.2, a time that ranks eighth in school history. She was the first 'Eater to make her way into the program's 6K record book in seven years.

Freshman Abby Marjama fired nine aces in the Anteaters' 3-1 victory over Saint Mary's in the finale of the Utah Volleyball Classic which tied Tandie Wade's mark set against Nevada in 1996. She was named Big West Freshman of the Year as well as Big West Freshman of the Week four times in a six week span.

Men's water polo player Jason Evezard was named the Golden Coast Conference Newcomer of the Year as well as an All-GCC second team choice after leading UCI with 64 goals, which ranked fourth in the conference. The transfer had a career-best seven goals against LMU (Oct. 14).

Men's track & field athlete Jack Pickard made a statement in his Anteater debut on April 5. The junior college transfer claimed the javelin title at the Big West Challenge with a lifetime-best 221-00. His mark broke the school record in the new javelin (since 1986) and ranks sixth all-time.
 
At the MPSF Women's Indoor Track Championships, freshman Zani Meaders ran an indoor program-record 55.78 in the 400m. 
 
In her collegiate debut, freshman Sienna Lyford posted a career-best round of 68 in the second round of the Ptarmigan Ram Classic. She tied for 13^th with a three round total of 220 (77-68-75), with her 68 standing as the best by an Anteater this year.

TEAM EFFORTS
The women's volleyball team finished third in the Big West and advanced to the National Invitational Volleyball Tournament. It is only the second time in school history, the Anteaters have made back-to-back postseason appearances, joining the 2003 and 2004 squads when they made the NCAA Tournament.
 
The women's basketball team took down defending Big West Tournament champion CSUN, 59-57, to advance to the conference semifinals for the first time in five years. The game was tied at 57-all before UCI ran the pick-and-roll to perfection as Lauren Saiki fed Tahlia Garza down low for the go-ahead layup with two seconds left. The victory also secured UC Irvine's first 20-win season since 1984-85.
 
The men's golf team won its second Cal Poly Match Play title, and first since 2015, after going 3-0 in the two-day tournament. They defeated CSUN and Utah State to advance to the championship match where they upset top-seeded UC Santa Barbara, 3.5-1.5.
 
Men's Tennis put together a season-long seven-match win streak from Feb. 16-March 12. Senior Luis Lopez was instrumental during that stretch as he went 4-0 at No. 1 singles and 7-0 in doubles alongside junior Bruce Man-Son-Hing. They went on to defeat Hawai'i, 4-1, in the Big West Tournament to advance to the conference semifinals for the fifth year in a row.
 
The baseball team finished with a mark of 37-17 winning 13 of 15 weekend series in 2019. The Anteaters were one of five schools nationally to accomplish that feat. UCI won 20 non-conference games including a 7-3 mark against the Pac-12 and an 11-3 mark out of state including four trips of over 2,000 miles round trip.
 
The men's basketball team joined Stony Brook for the most wins on the road nationally this season with 13. The 'Eaters went 13-2 on the road in 2018-19. The Anteaters became the second Big West team to go undefeated on the road in league play (8-0), matching Pacific who did it in 2004-05.
 
The women's soccer team reached the Big West Tournament for the ninth time in head coach Scott Juniper's 12 seasons.
 
LATE HEROICS
Men's basketball had three thrilling wins on the road. Eyassu Worku hit a fall away game-winner with six seconds remaining to beat Texas A&M at Reed Arena in the first road game of the year. Max Hazzard knocked down a jumper with 10 seconds left in overtime to lift UC Irvine to a 75-74 win over Hawai'i in Honolulu. The Anteaters stormed back from a 14-point deficit with 8:36 left in the second half to send the game to overtime tied, 64-64. In an important Black & Blue Rivalry game, Evan Leonard fired a pass inside to Tommy Rutherford who laid in the game-winner with 2.4 seconds on the clock for the 82-80 victory over Long Beach State at Walter Pyramid.
 
Women's soccer had a dramatic run of eight double overtime matches in 2018 winning three of them in the last minute. Reema Bzeih's last-second goal to defeat Hawai'i was her first career goal.
 
One of men's tennis player Luis Lopez's most impressive performances came in a 4-3 win over Gonzaga as he battled back from being down 5-2 in the third set to deliver the match-clinching 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory at the top of the lineup.
 
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
UCI student-athletes accumulated over 500+ hours of community service, while Peter the Anteater attended 163 events throughout the year and logged over 700 hours of engagement.
 
Just a few of the events UCI student-athletes participated in were Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Take Back The Night, Holiday Toy Drive, Denim Day and the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics.
 
OTHER NOTABLES
Pitcher Trenton Denholm, who earned All-American honors, was invited to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp that runs from June 27 to July 1.

Women's cross country had a perfect Academic Progress Rate (APR) score of 1,000, resulting in an NCAA Public Recognition Award for the ninth year in a row. All 18 of the Anteaters' sports featured in the annual report had multi-year scores of 950 or higher. Ten of those teams were above 980, and five were over 990 - men's golf (996), women's volleyball (994), men's tennis (992) and men's water polo (991).

UCI set a women's soccer attendance record in the season opener versus USC when 1,704 fans watch the Anteaters take on the Trojans. It was the fourth-largest crowd in the history of Anteater Stadium and the largest crowd ever for a regular season match.
 
UC Irvine men's cross country was named a USTFCCCA All-Academic Team with a 3.08 cumulative GPA. It was their first national all-academic team award since 2014.
 
Men's golfer Ramiz Jamal sank the first hole-in-one of his collegiate career in the second round of the Anteater Invitational at Big Canyon Country Club on Feb. 11. Jamal recorded his ace on the par-3, 202-yard 12th hole.