As the spring sports seasons come to an end, let’s look back at our teams who have played their hearts out this season.
Baseball
Led by head coach Jesse Anderson, the baseball team placed sixth in the Pacific Coast League. One of the top performers on the team was Shawn Ho, who finished with the third most home runs in PCL. Senior Andrew Shean, another top performer, had an earned run average of 1.11 in PCL, putting him at the top of the league and sixth best in CIF Southern Section Division VI. Shean also had 63 strikeouts this year, putting him at 9th place in CIF-SS Division VI for most strikeouts. The Trojans reflect on their season as a success despite not achieving their hopes.
“Our team fought through every game, even though we may not have won, which is what I’m most proud of,” senior Isaak Hsieh said. “Overall, the season didn’t end the way we wanted, but we all grew closer.”
Softball
Behind head coach Juan Meneses, the UHS Softball team placed fourth in PCL this season and is currently in a CIF run. The top performers for the softball team were junior Sophia Weinberg and senior pitcher Carson Cruz. Weinberg led PCL with 27 stolen bases and was third in the league for batting average, sitting at 0.556. Throughout league play, Cruz struck out 169 batters and had an earned run average of 2.82, putting her at third and 11th, respectively, in CIF-SS Division VII. Cruz speaks to the team’s primary goals going into the season.
“We proved a lot last season, but this season we had more pressure to be even better,” Cruz said. “To come off a win like last year, I just wanted my team to try their best and hopefully end up where we ended last year.”
Boys’ & Girls’ Swim
Led by coach Ryan Vandewydeven, Boys’ Swim finished their season ranked fourth in CIF and 13th in California. The team performed well in the CIF championship, finishing with a total of 515.92 points after strong performances from senior George Hibbard, senior Dylan Mac, junior Sam Kiemm and junior Christopher Lin, sophomore Tiger Chai and freshman Ben Wang. Many Trojan swimmers attribute their success to the hard work put in behind the scenes.
“I have trained my weaknesses by specifically focusing on them in training and changing my technique to better my stroke,” Lin said.
Head Coach Shiela Shaikh has led the UHS Girls’ Swim team to finish 19th in CIF-SS and 44th in the state. The Trojans finished with 428.41 points, with top contributions coming from sophomore Naiyin Wang and freshmen Elena Xiong, Kynsley Espiritu, Oliviia Efimenko and Natalie Chien.
Boys’ & Girls’ Lacrosse
The UHS Boys’ Lacrosse team, led by coach Nick Matzek, placed second in PCL this season and qualified for the CIF playoffs once again. Senior attackman Finn Gallagher finished with 65 goals and 94 points, putting him first in PCL in both categories. Senior midfielder Kaj Martiny led PCL in the ground ball category with 121 this year, putting him at ninth place in CIF-SS for most ground balls. Martiny reflects on the season as a journey full of growth, both individually and as a team.
“When I look back on the season, I see how we turned an unlikely team into one capable of a playoff run,” Martiny said. “I am very proud of the team’s performance as well as my own. Last year, my first on varsity, I rode the bench most of the year and didn’t feel like I contributed much, so I decided I would do what I could to become an important part of the team, and this year I scored eight times as many goals as I did last season.”
The UHS Girls’ Lacrosse team, led by coach Martin Stilbolt, finished fourth in PCL. Sophomore Ava Pattock scored 83 goals, placing her in second place in PCL and seventh in CIF-SS. Senior Britney Lim also had a strong year for the Trojans, topping the PCL with a draw percentage of 0.579%.
Boys’ & Girls’ Track and Field
Head Coach Eric Davies, in his last year of coaching, led both the Boys’ and Girls’ Track and Field Teams. The Track and Field team had many top performances in the PCL Finals. For the boys, senior Ameen Gish placed third for the 800-meter run in PCL finals with a time of 1:58.84. Senior Tyler Brody placed third at PCL finals for both the 110m Hurdles and 300m Hurdles with a time of 15.87 seconds and 41.48 seconds, respectively. Sophomore Vitor Campos placed second in Shot Put by throwing a distance of 13.18 meters and placed fifth in Discus by throwing 34.72 meters. Gish and Brody also made it to CIF-SS D1 Preliminaries.
At the PCL finals, senior Claire Hipszer won both the 1600-meter race with a time of 5:08.06 and the 3200-meter race with a time of 11:03.18. Junior Sofia Costa won the High Jump competition by jumping a height of 5’0”. With their wins in the league, Hipszer and Costa also qualified for the CIF-SS D1 Preliminaries, with Hipszer also qualifying for the CIF-SS Finals. Sophomore triple jumper Rebecca Lee reflects on her improvement this season.
“I improved my times by conditioning and running more to balance my love for Taco Bell, which in turn made me hungrier and restarted the cycle,” Lee said.
Boys’ Volleyball
Hailey Frey, head coach of the UHS Boys’ Volleyball team, led her team to finish fourth in PCL. One of the team’s high points this year was going on a three-game win streak from March 13 to March 20.
“That three-game win streak showed us how talented our team can be when we are all on the same page,” junior Brian Nguyen said. “Winning back to back to back against some of the top teams in our league really boosted our morale and confidence throughout the season as well.”
Boys’ Tennis
The head coach of the UHS Boys’ Tennis team, John Kessler, had an amazing season. Boys’ Tennis won PCL and placed fourth in the All-American Tournament, which featured the top teams from the country. They also qualified for the CIF Division I Championship for the seventh time in a row after beating Woodbridge 11-7 in the semifinals. They will play against Harvard-Westlake in the finals on May 15. The Trojans are proud of where they have come this season, but still have their sights set on winning the state championship.
“I feel like I’ve achieved a lot of my goals so far this season,” junior Tyler Chandler said. “Not only have I become a captain, but also our team has won our league and my partner, Reid Hashimoto, and I won our league individuals. However, we still have a lot of things I want to achieve, including winning CIF, regionals and state.”
Boys’ Golf
Coach Charles Shea has led the UHS Boys’ Golf team to a fifth-place finish in PCL this season.
“I think the team can look at this season positively,” junior Shaurya Suresh said. “As a team, we each supported each other and helped prepare for our matches together, as well as made sure everything between the members was positive.”
As spring comes to a close, seniors reflect on their last season with UHS athletics, and underclassmen look forward to future years. The 2026 spring sports season may have ended, but the memories, milestones and hard work of UHS’ athletes will last far beyond the final whistle.
