Photo by: Jacob Thompson
Celebrating the Best Of 2025-26 At The Zotspys
May 19, 2026 | General
IRVINE, Calif. – The third annual Zotspys was held Monday at the Bren Events Center, celebrating all of the academic and athletic success UC Irvine Athletics has had during the 2025-26 season.
So far, UC Irvine has had regular season titles in men's soccer, men's basketball, women's basketball, and men's tennis. In the Fall, men's soccer won the Big West Men's Soccer Championship and made an appearance in the NCAA tournament followed in the Winter by post-season appearances for men's basketball in the NIT and women's basketball in the WBIT. Women's indoor track and field made history capturing their first MPSF title then last week the women's outdoor track & field team won their second consecutive Big West Outdoor Championship. The men's volleyball team earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament, taking down number one seed UCLA and advancing all the way to the National Championship.
Men's Volleyball player Shane Aitken was named Male Athlete of the Year, while women's basketball player Hunter Hernandez was named Female Athlete of the Year.
Aitken led the Anteater defense to the NCAA title match and a final No. 2 ranking. He became the third Anteater libero to be named to the 12-member first team AVCA All-America squad. The elite passer was second in the Big West with a 1.98 dig average, recording double-digit digs eight times, including a career-high 15 versus UC Santa Barbara which is tied for second most by a Big West player this season. The redshirt sophomore also earned honorable mention All-Big West this season.
Hernandez was named the 2025-26 Big West Women's Basketball Player of the Year and earned her third career first-team all-conference award. She was a five-time Big West Player of the Week and made the Big West Championship All-Tournament Team. Hernandez cemented her legacy as one of the most prolific scorers in UC Irvine women's basketball history, breaking a 42-year-old record to become UCI's all-time single-season leader with 655 points. She also tied the single-game school record with 41 points at Cal Poly on March 5,and moved up to second in program history with 1,477 career points. In addition, Hunter broke the school record in career free throws made with 402.
Women's track & field athlete Joy Anderson was the Female Freshman of the Year, while Andrej Jokanovic was the Male Freshman of the Year. Anderson won the Big West heptathlon in school record fashion, while Jokanovic was named AVCA National Newcomer of the Year as well as Big West Freshman of the Year.
The Academic Achievement Award goes to student-athletes that work diligently to become high-achieving student while continuing to contribute to their sport was presented to women's volleyball player Campbell Jensen, women's soccer player Aislynn Crowder, men's track & field athlete Chimobi Onye and men's water polo player Zayd Mahmoud.
The International Student-Athletes Award went to women's soccer player Chifumi Sasaki and men's water polo player Luka Krstic. The award acknowledges the extra obstacles international students encounter while participating in intercollegiate athletics and pursuing their studies.
The event also celebrated 228 scholar-athletes as well as team and unit grade point average (GPA) leaders. Women's golf and men's golf received the Dr. Dave Snow Award for the highest team GPAs.
Several specialty awards were also given out with student-athletes voting on team awards and coaches and staff voting on individual honors.
Women's soccer players Mia and Ella Colombini were the Dynamic Duo award winners.
Men's soccer beating UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Championship game was the Best Upset, while Best Individual Performance went men's tennis player Hiroki Sakagawa who led the Anteaters to a share of Big West regular season title, upset two ranked players in 2026. Pitcher Tyler Foster striking out of UCLA's Roch Cholowsky was voted the Best Play.
Women's Track & Field earned the Best Record-Breaking Performance after setting 20 new school marks over the indoor and outdoor seasons.
Women's track athlete Aoife Hernon was tabbed Female Newcomer of the Year and men's volleyball player Trevor Clark was the Male Newcomer of the Year. Hernon set both the indoor and outdoor school records in the 400-meter and 4x400 relay. Clark was named second team All-America as well NCAA All-Tournament and was second in the country in hitting percentage.
New categories this year included Male and Female Comeback Players of the Year, won by men's basketball player Andre Henry, baseball player Tim Grack, women's soccer player Kelsey Swyney and women's track & field athlete Alana Sugue. Staffer of the Year was won by Brad Greene.
The night culminated by recognizing the graduating seniors and presenting the student-athlete sashes.
UNIT GPA LEADERS
Biological sciences Aidan Cuppett, Men's Volleyball
Business Justin Conyers, Men's Soccer
Education Kendra Macdonald, Women's Volleyball
Engineering Cade Williams, Men's Soccer
Graduate Division Aoife Hernon, Women's Track & Field
Humanities Jake Troxell, Men's Track & Field
Information & Computer Sciences Agaton Pourshahidi, Men's Soccer
Pharmaceutical Sciences Vincent Vega, Men's Water Polo
Physical Sciences Mia Colombini, Women's Soccer
Public Health Ella Walker, Women's Water Polo
Social Ecology Jackie Pan, Women's Cross Country
Social Sciences Max Fardanesh, Men's Tennis
TEAM GPA LEADERS
Baseball Jack Ross
Women's Tennis Maily Huynh
Men's Tennis Max Fardanesh
Women's Volleyball Ally Bolden
Men's Volleyball Aidan Cuppett
Women's Water Polo Ella Walker
Men's Water Polo Keegan Mcgann
Women's Basketball Haley Hernandez
Men's Basketball Tishan Ahir
Women's Soccer Mia Colombini
Men's Soccer Justin Conyers
Women's Golf Katelyn Kong
Men's golf Owen Davis-Piger
Women's Cross Country Jackie Pan
Men's Cross Country Jimmy Markowicz
Women's Track & Field Deana Davis
Men's Track & Filed Jerry Roberts III
Scholar-Athletes
Baseball
Jaxton Andeel, Ryder Brooks, Cade Castles, Cole Clark, Zach Crandall, Davis D'Errico, Connor Dietsch, Zach Doyle, Tommy Farmer, Zach Fjelstad, Tim Grack, Auggie Gutierrez, Dylan Hillman, Theo Kim, Hunter Manning, Efren Ortega, Daniel Polasek, Peyton Rodgers, Jack Ross, Lucas Schermer, Alex Schmidt, Alex Umland
Men's Basketball
Tishan Ahir, Harrison Carrington, Elijah Chol, Ben Egbo, Bryce Goldman, Mason Hodges, Luke Isaak, Torian Lee, Joshua Palmer, Derin Saran
Women's Basketball
Despoina Baltzi, Daniela Falcon Hernandez, Summah Hanson, Haley Hernandez, Ameerah Grant, Lauryn Madsen, Shirel Nahum, Reese Noa, Jada Wynn
Men's Golf
Owen Davis-Piger, Rei Harashima, Tommy Lin, Jason Tang, Jack Yu
Women's Golf
Alona Avery, Kiana Briggs, Chelsie Chin, Katherine Gerbing, Katelyn Kong, HaYoung Lee
Men's Soccer
Travis Babineau, Javir Bedolla Vera, Justin Conyers, Nolan DiCenzo, Cristian Gallo, Isaiahs Gutierrez, Elijah Juge, Darwin Lopez, Gage Lyons, Ben Martin, Joe O'Shaughnessy, Isaiah Quarcoo, Alex Shields, Cade Williams, Hunny Yoo
Women's Soccer
Savanna Arruda, Sophia Speziale, Hailey Clingan, Mara Cochon, Ella Colombini, Mia Colombini, Gianna Costello, Jenika Davis, Malaina Duro, Alissey Fang, Milan Heisdorf, Gabby Nelms, Mia Rodriguez, Chifumi Sasaki, Fiona Shin, Kelsey Swyney, Mirayah Villapando, Jasmyne Wheeler, Ivy Williams, Laurenn Ziller
Men's Tennis
Mason Bui, Max Fardanesh, Greg Gamal, Ruining Huang
Women's Tennis
Quin Brady, Kara Chen, Carolyna Fowler, Yen Nhi Huynh, Haily Huynh, Maily Huynh, Polina Jorniak, Nour Khayat, Lindsay Kim, Amanda Perez, Bella Pitchford, Ani Vanetsyan
Men's Cross Country / Track & Field
Ziyad Abdallah, Brandon Burns, Jacob Bustamante, Brendan Clark, Griffin Cole, Juan Chantaca, Cole Dinkler, Colin Green, Matthew Irvine, Justin Johnson, Jimmy Markowicz, Mark McAleenan Jr., Caden Matsumoto, Roman Mendoza, Kenechukwu Okonkwo, Chimobi Onye, Jerry Roberts, Omar Reyes, Javin Schmitt, Jake Troxell, Alan Vuong
Women's Cross Country / Track & Field
Sarah Ajayi, Joy Anderson, Nyla Baker, Samantha Bartz, Grace Baxter, Makena Castillo, Nadia Combs-Mahone, Jessie Condliff, Nicole Contreras, DeAna Davis, Esmeray Demirbas, Elisabeth Driscoll, Natalie Gonzalez Moreno, Emma Hadley, Cynthia Herrera, Arden Keeton, Kaitlin Kenney, Breckyn Kornachuk, Liana Lee, Leilah Lauifi, Mikah Longcob, Rachel Moen, Kaitlene Ofilan, Ihe Okoh, Jackie Pan, Jolie Robinson, Giselle Rodriguez, Pinkie Schnayer, Alana Sugue, Halle Sutherland, Kaia Schmidt, Anna Soares, Kaylee Tan, Zhara Taylor, Cataline Teran
Men's Volleyball
Shane Aitken, Alec Apelian, Andreas Brinck, Kobe Brown, Trevor Clark, Aidan Cuppett, Tim Ennis, Micah Goss, Andon Kiriakou, Aidan Rigg, Aidan Schulten, Micha Tumas, Beck Weber, Lukas Winn
Women's Volleyball
Jessica Bates, Ally Bolden, Brianna Brewer, Memphis Burnett, Angelina Dellutri, Nicole Feliciano, Ava Gronemeyer, Lois Hansen, Kendra MacDonald, Elizabeth Miller, Abby Pekrul, Izzy Romero, Madison Triplett, Keelan Williams
Men's Water Polo
Nico Assalian, Ben Atkinson, Andrew Bockstahler, Blake Borders, Samuel Bowman, Jasper Dale, Wyley Dale, Cole Francisco, Jayson Hubbard, Charlie Jones, Tyler Laymon, Brody Luke, Zayd Mahmoud, Maddox McEwen, Keegan McGann, Samuel Otta, Dylan Rosmann, Ethan Spoon, Johann Thrall, Vincent Vega, Gage Verdegaal, Ben Youngblood
Women's Water Polo
Vivian Bailey, Charley Birdsall, Bella Calderon, Anya Frey, Sydney Hagan, Mary Hassett, Pippa Heaver, Lauren Hett, Madeline Kasper, Mayezie Loggins, Anabelle Mundelius, Deirdre Murphy, Sara Naulty, Chloe Patist, Annie Peak, Jess Reagan, CJ Sirls, Michelle Urkov, Ella Walker
So far, UC Irvine has had regular season titles in men's soccer, men's basketball, women's basketball, and men's tennis. In the Fall, men's soccer won the Big West Men's Soccer Championship and made an appearance in the NCAA tournament followed in the Winter by post-season appearances for men's basketball in the NIT and women's basketball in the WBIT. Women's indoor track and field made history capturing their first MPSF title then last week the women's outdoor track & field team won their second consecutive Big West Outdoor Championship. The men's volleyball team earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament, taking down number one seed UCLA and advancing all the way to the National Championship.
Men's Volleyball player Shane Aitken was named Male Athlete of the Year, while women's basketball player Hunter Hernandez was named Female Athlete of the Year.
Aitken led the Anteater defense to the NCAA title match and a final No. 2 ranking. He became the third Anteater libero to be named to the 12-member first team AVCA All-America squad. The elite passer was second in the Big West with a 1.98 dig average, recording double-digit digs eight times, including a career-high 15 versus UC Santa Barbara which is tied for second most by a Big West player this season. The redshirt sophomore also earned honorable mention All-Big West this season.
Hernandez was named the 2025-26 Big West Women's Basketball Player of the Year and earned her third career first-team all-conference award. She was a five-time Big West Player of the Week and made the Big West Championship All-Tournament Team. Hernandez cemented her legacy as one of the most prolific scorers in UC Irvine women's basketball history, breaking a 42-year-old record to become UCI's all-time single-season leader with 655 points. She also tied the single-game school record with 41 points at Cal Poly on March 5,and moved up to second in program history with 1,477 career points. In addition, Hunter broke the school record in career free throws made with 402.
Women's track & field athlete Joy Anderson was the Female Freshman of the Year, while Andrej Jokanovic was the Male Freshman of the Year. Anderson won the Big West heptathlon in school record fashion, while Jokanovic was named AVCA National Newcomer of the Year as well as Big West Freshman of the Year.
The Academic Achievement Award goes to student-athletes that work diligently to become high-achieving student while continuing to contribute to their sport was presented to women's volleyball player Campbell Jensen, women's soccer player Aislynn Crowder, men's track & field athlete Chimobi Onye and men's water polo player Zayd Mahmoud.
The International Student-Athletes Award went to women's soccer player Chifumi Sasaki and men's water polo player Luka Krstic. The award acknowledges the extra obstacles international students encounter while participating in intercollegiate athletics and pursuing their studies.
The event also celebrated 228 scholar-athletes as well as team and unit grade point average (GPA) leaders. Women's golf and men's golf received the Dr. Dave Snow Award for the highest team GPAs.
Several specialty awards were also given out with student-athletes voting on team awards and coaches and staff voting on individual honors.
Women's soccer players Mia and Ella Colombini were the Dynamic Duo award winners.
Men's soccer beating UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Championship game was the Best Upset, while Best Individual Performance went men's tennis player Hiroki Sakagawa who led the Anteaters to a share of Big West regular season title, upset two ranked players in 2026. Pitcher Tyler Foster striking out of UCLA's Roch Cholowsky was voted the Best Play.
Women's Track & Field earned the Best Record-Breaking Performance after setting 20 new school marks over the indoor and outdoor seasons.
Women's track athlete Aoife Hernon was tabbed Female Newcomer of the Year and men's volleyball player Trevor Clark was the Male Newcomer of the Year. Hernon set both the indoor and outdoor school records in the 400-meter and 4x400 relay. Clark was named second team All-America as well NCAA All-Tournament and was second in the country in hitting percentage.
New categories this year included Male and Female Comeback Players of the Year, won by men's basketball player Andre Henry, baseball player Tim Grack, women's soccer player Kelsey Swyney and women's track & field athlete Alana Sugue. Staffer of the Year was won by Brad Greene.
The night culminated by recognizing the graduating seniors and presenting the student-athlete sashes.
UNIT GPA LEADERS
Biological sciences Aidan Cuppett, Men's Volleyball
Business Justin Conyers, Men's Soccer
Education Kendra Macdonald, Women's Volleyball
Engineering Cade Williams, Men's Soccer
Graduate Division Aoife Hernon, Women's Track & Field
Humanities Jake Troxell, Men's Track & Field
Information & Computer Sciences Agaton Pourshahidi, Men's Soccer
Pharmaceutical Sciences Vincent Vega, Men's Water Polo
Physical Sciences Mia Colombini, Women's Soccer
Public Health Ella Walker, Women's Water Polo
Social Ecology Jackie Pan, Women's Cross Country
Social Sciences Max Fardanesh, Men's Tennis
TEAM GPA LEADERS
Baseball Jack Ross
Women's Tennis Maily Huynh
Men's Tennis Max Fardanesh
Women's Volleyball Ally Bolden
Men's Volleyball Aidan Cuppett
Women's Water Polo Ella Walker
Men's Water Polo Keegan Mcgann
Women's Basketball Haley Hernandez
Men's Basketball Tishan Ahir
Women's Soccer Mia Colombini
Men's Soccer Justin Conyers
Women's Golf Katelyn Kong
Men's golf Owen Davis-Piger
Women's Cross Country Jackie Pan
Men's Cross Country Jimmy Markowicz
Women's Track & Field Deana Davis
Men's Track & Filed Jerry Roberts III
Scholar-Athletes
Baseball
Jaxton Andeel, Ryder Brooks, Cade Castles, Cole Clark, Zach Crandall, Davis D'Errico, Connor Dietsch, Zach Doyle, Tommy Farmer, Zach Fjelstad, Tim Grack, Auggie Gutierrez, Dylan Hillman, Theo Kim, Hunter Manning, Efren Ortega, Daniel Polasek, Peyton Rodgers, Jack Ross, Lucas Schermer, Alex Schmidt, Alex Umland
Men's Basketball
Tishan Ahir, Harrison Carrington, Elijah Chol, Ben Egbo, Bryce Goldman, Mason Hodges, Luke Isaak, Torian Lee, Joshua Palmer, Derin Saran
Women's Basketball
Despoina Baltzi, Daniela Falcon Hernandez, Summah Hanson, Haley Hernandez, Ameerah Grant, Lauryn Madsen, Shirel Nahum, Reese Noa, Jada Wynn
Men's Golf
Owen Davis-Piger, Rei Harashima, Tommy Lin, Jason Tang, Jack Yu
Women's Golf
Alona Avery, Kiana Briggs, Chelsie Chin, Katherine Gerbing, Katelyn Kong, HaYoung Lee
Men's Soccer
Travis Babineau, Javir Bedolla Vera, Justin Conyers, Nolan DiCenzo, Cristian Gallo, Isaiahs Gutierrez, Elijah Juge, Darwin Lopez, Gage Lyons, Ben Martin, Joe O'Shaughnessy, Isaiah Quarcoo, Alex Shields, Cade Williams, Hunny Yoo
Women's Soccer
Savanna Arruda, Sophia Speziale, Hailey Clingan, Mara Cochon, Ella Colombini, Mia Colombini, Gianna Costello, Jenika Davis, Malaina Duro, Alissey Fang, Milan Heisdorf, Gabby Nelms, Mia Rodriguez, Chifumi Sasaki, Fiona Shin, Kelsey Swyney, Mirayah Villapando, Jasmyne Wheeler, Ivy Williams, Laurenn Ziller
Men's Tennis
Mason Bui, Max Fardanesh, Greg Gamal, Ruining Huang
Women's Tennis
Quin Brady, Kara Chen, Carolyna Fowler, Yen Nhi Huynh, Haily Huynh, Maily Huynh, Polina Jorniak, Nour Khayat, Lindsay Kim, Amanda Perez, Bella Pitchford, Ani Vanetsyan
Men's Cross Country / Track & Field
Ziyad Abdallah, Brandon Burns, Jacob Bustamante, Brendan Clark, Griffin Cole, Juan Chantaca, Cole Dinkler, Colin Green, Matthew Irvine, Justin Johnson, Jimmy Markowicz, Mark McAleenan Jr., Caden Matsumoto, Roman Mendoza, Kenechukwu Okonkwo, Chimobi Onye, Jerry Roberts, Omar Reyes, Javin Schmitt, Jake Troxell, Alan Vuong
Women's Cross Country / Track & Field
Sarah Ajayi, Joy Anderson, Nyla Baker, Samantha Bartz, Grace Baxter, Makena Castillo, Nadia Combs-Mahone, Jessie Condliff, Nicole Contreras, DeAna Davis, Esmeray Demirbas, Elisabeth Driscoll, Natalie Gonzalez Moreno, Emma Hadley, Cynthia Herrera, Arden Keeton, Kaitlin Kenney, Breckyn Kornachuk, Liana Lee, Leilah Lauifi, Mikah Longcob, Rachel Moen, Kaitlene Ofilan, Ihe Okoh, Jackie Pan, Jolie Robinson, Giselle Rodriguez, Pinkie Schnayer, Alana Sugue, Halle Sutherland, Kaia Schmidt, Anna Soares, Kaylee Tan, Zhara Taylor, Cataline Teran
Men's Volleyball
Shane Aitken, Alec Apelian, Andreas Brinck, Kobe Brown, Trevor Clark, Aidan Cuppett, Tim Ennis, Micah Goss, Andon Kiriakou, Aidan Rigg, Aidan Schulten, Micha Tumas, Beck Weber, Lukas Winn
Women's Volleyball
Jessica Bates, Ally Bolden, Brianna Brewer, Memphis Burnett, Angelina Dellutri, Nicole Feliciano, Ava Gronemeyer, Lois Hansen, Kendra MacDonald, Elizabeth Miller, Abby Pekrul, Izzy Romero, Madison Triplett, Keelan Williams
Men's Water Polo
Nico Assalian, Ben Atkinson, Andrew Bockstahler, Blake Borders, Samuel Bowman, Jasper Dale, Wyley Dale, Cole Francisco, Jayson Hubbard, Charlie Jones, Tyler Laymon, Brody Luke, Zayd Mahmoud, Maddox McEwen, Keegan McGann, Samuel Otta, Dylan Rosmann, Ethan Spoon, Johann Thrall, Vincent Vega, Gage Verdegaal, Ben Youngblood
Women's Water Polo
Vivian Bailey, Charley Birdsall, Bella Calderon, Anya Frey, Sydney Hagan, Mary Hassett, Pippa Heaver, Lauren Hett, Madeline Kasper, Mayezie Loggins, Anabelle Mundelius, Deirdre Murphy, Sara Naulty, Chloe Patist, Annie Peak, Jess Reagan, CJ Sirls, Michelle Urkov, Ella Walker
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