60 Years of Anteater Athletics: 1998-2010
June 09, 2026 | General
As we close out the 1990s, the signing of the Athletics and Student Activities Referendum changed the landscape of the department and set the stage for many memorable moments to come.
November 1998 – Women’s cross country runner Christy Villa won the individual title at the Big West Championship and went on to finish third at the NCAA West Regional in a time of 16:54 over 5,000 meters helping the team to a seventh-place performance. Villa would become the first All-American since 1990, placing 29th at the NCAA Championships held in Lawrence, Kansas.
May 1998 – The women’s sailing team won the Pacific Coast Championship, qualifying for the national championship. The Anteaters, who entered the PCCs unranked, tied Stanford but earned the title with more first place finishes over the 22 races. Fiona McLean and Simrun Kaira won Division A, while Carrie Linskey and Melissa Cutter were second in Division B. The team would go on to finish 10th at nationals. Also on the water, the women’s crew team won the Collins Cup.
May 1999 – The UCI undergraduate student body passed the Athletics and Student Activities Referendum, leading to the re-instatement of the baseball team and the addition of women's golf, women's water polo and women’s indoor track.
March 2001 – The men’s basketball team ended the 2000-01 season with a then-school-record 25 wins en route to winning the program’s first Big West Conference title.
January 10, 2002 – Jerry Green hits a jumper at the buzzer to lead the men’s basketball team to a 67-66 win over Utah State in Logan, Utah, snapping the Aggies’ 31-game home winning streak. UCI went on to win its second straight conference regular-season title.
April 2002 – In its inaugural season, the women's golf team captured the Big West Championship with freshman Stella Lee winning the individual title.
December 2003 – Kelly Wing became the first All-American in the sport of women’s volleyball after leading UCI to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 15 years. The Anteaters won their first tournament match, defeating Missouri, and set a school record with 22 wins.
February 2004 – Anne Marie Turpin became the first athlete to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships where she finished 13th in the pentathlon. She also competed in the NCAA Outdoor Championships but was forced to withdraw after five of the seven events due to injury.
August 2004 – Five UCI men’s water polo alums are on the U.S. Olympic team as Omar Amr, Ryan Bailey, Genai Kerr, Dan Klatt and Jeff Powers compete in the Summer Games at Athens, Greece.
November 2005 – Amber Steen was the individual champion with a time of 20:55.5 over 6,000 meters as UC Irvine captured the Big West Cross Country Championship. Steen was named Athlete of the Year, while head coach Vince O’Boyle was named Coach of the Year for the 20th time in his career.
April 2006 – The women’s golf team won its second of four straight Big West titles behind individual champion and Golfer of the Year Selanee Henderson.
May 2007 – Men’s volleyball won its first NCAA title with a 3-1 victory over IPFW in the final at Columbus, Ohio. UCI’s Matt Webber was named tournament MVP.
June 2007 – Outfielder Bryan Petersen doubled in Matt Morris for the game-winning run as the baseball team stunned eighth-ranked Wichita State, 3-2 and advance to the Division I College World Series for the first time in program history. In Omaha, the Anteaters defeated Cal State Fullerton, 5-4 in 13 innings, in the then-longest game (5:40) in CWS history. In another thriller, the Anteaters beat Arizona State in the 10th inning on a one-out, bases loaded single to walk off with a victory in front of nearly 30,000, the second largest crowd in CWS history. Earlier in the day, the national-championship men’s volleyball team was saluted at the White House in Washington, D.C.
UCI won the Athletic Directors Association Division I-AAA All-Sports Trophy. The annual award is given to the best all-around sports program in Division I-AAA (non-football schools).
November 2008 –The men’s soccer team made its first NCAA appearance and advanced to the Sweet 16 were the Anteaters lost 3-2 at third-seeded St. John’s.
April 2009 – UC Irvine baseball and men’s volleyball were both ranked No. 1 in the nation, the first time in Division I history that two Anteater teams were ranked first at the same time.
May 2009 – In women’s rowing, the UCI Varsity 4 won the Grand Final of the 71st Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, marking the program’s first win in the history of the event. The Anteaters also qualified for five of the seven Grand Finals at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships.
June 2009 – Lauren Collins placed third in the high jump and Alisha Misiaita was fifth in the shot put at the NCAA West Regional. Collins, who finished ninth at the championship final, won the Big West championship with a school record mark of 6-1.75.
November, 2010 – The women’s soccer team made the program's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16 after wins over Arizona State (2-1) and Wake Forest (2-0) before losing to Washington, 1-0, in double overtime.
May 2010 – The men’s golf team won the Big West Conference Championship behind medalist John Chin. Chin was named Division I PING All-America first team by the Golf Coaches Association of America, the first UCI men's golfer to earn the award in the university's NCAA Division I history.
