University City had an exceptional fall sports season this year, with a myriad of teams winning their League Championship titles, placing in League, advancing in CIFs, and winning multiple CIF titles.

Field Hockey

   Girls Field Hockey finished the season as undefeated Eastern League Champions with a record of 17 to 6 in the regular season and 5 and 0 in League. Their Senior Night on November 1 was a high stakes game, against Clairemont High, the second place Eastern League team. It also determined their placement in League as well as whether they would stay undefeated. They then made their way up the CIF bracket to the championship game.

   “It was a pretty even matched game, going back and forth the whole time,” said Junior Sydney Buchanan. “We had to go into overtime with two ten minute halves. Then we went into shoot-outs because nobody scored.” This game was an amazing feat for the team, being their first time winning CIFs in the sport’s history at UC. “We trained the whole season for that one game and I think we pulled it off really well and we worked together amazingly,” said Buchanan.

Football

   Football had a stellar season, with a record of 11-3 overall and ending League play with a 4-0 record, putting them in first place. On Friday, November 25, the team won the Division 3 CIF Championship. Junior Kai Doyle said, “It was unbelievable. Seeing everyone so excited and crying tears of happiness was really unimaginable.”

“The highlight of our season so far was probably beating Point Loma, that was the game we had to win to win League. We both went into the game being 3-0 in League,” said Senior Terrance Donati.

Boys Water Polo

   Senior Noah Bolton said, “We were first in League this year. We started out 0 and 7 and eventually turned the season around and won it all. We made it into the playoff round of CIFs.” They ended the season with a record of 12 wins to 10 losses overall and a record of 4-1 in League play. “The highlight of the season had to be winning on Senior Night. It was the game to make it into the CIF playoff round and to win League versus Scripps Ranch.” The hardest team they played this season was Mission Bay. “We lost to them first and then the second time we played them we finally beat them [10-9]. We needed that win against Mission Bay to take our place and win League,” Bolton added.

Cross Country

   Cross country started off with a great League season, with girls cross country, placing second behind Cathedral Catholic and boys cross country placing first for Western League. Both the Girls and Boys Cross Country Teams got second place in CIFs, and they headed of the State Championships in Fresno. Girls cross country placed third in the State Championships, earning the title of third best team in California for Division 3.

Girls Golf

    Girls golf won Eastern League Champions this season, winning all but one of their League games. Their final tournament was at Balboa. Sophomore Isa Neri said, “We mostly went for the experience of playing 18 holes but we expect to be a serious contender next year.”

Girls Tennis

   Head Coach Justin Nguyen said, “We placed somewhere in the middle of our League, probably fourth in Eastern League.” With such a successful season after moving up a Division from last year, one match really stands out: their upset against Canyon Hills High School. Nguyen added, “The final match was going to determine if we won or lost and we were down 1 to 5 in that set [out of 6 points],” said Nguyen. Senior Bella Rose Schremmer and Sophomore Keira Roberts were playing this doubles match. “Keira and Bella Rose came back to a tie break and they won. That ended up giving us the win over Canyon Hills and was our last League game of the season,” Nguyen added.

Girls Volleyball

   Girls volleyball won League this year for the eighth time since entering Eastern League in 2016. They were co-champions with the Academy of Our Lady of Peace. They had a 20-9 record when they headed into playoffs, with a strong lead; however, they lost to Vista, their first League game.