From a thrilling run for the water polo national championship to volleyball’s first-ever win over a conference rival and high honors for academics, Pacific’s student-athletes excelled in fall 2022.

Here are the top six moments from an extraordinary season: 

Pacific’s men’s water polo program asserted itself on the national stage by winning the final Golden Coast Conference Men’s Water Polo Championship and earning an NCAA bid for the third time in the last five seasons.

Bogdan Djerkovic ’23 was named the event’s Most Valuable Player. Head Coach James Graham was named the 2022 Golden Coast Conference Coach of the Year.

The Tigers ranked as high as third in the nation during the season and knocked off the UC Davis Aggies in the opening round of NCAA play to advance to the national semifinal. 

The team also knocked off No. 3 University of Southern California, 15-13, in its home opener, securing a win over the Trojans who ended the regular season as the country’s No. 1 team. 

The volleyball team rallied for a 3-2 win over No. 12 Brigham Young University in a Homecoming match with more than 40 former players in town to celebrate Pacific’s nine Final Four teams from the 1980s and ’90s. It was the first win over Brigham Young since the two teams joined the West Coast Conference.
 

Women’s soccer defeated eventual West Coast Conference champion Santa Clara in an October match that ended the non-conference schedule undefeated, with a 5-0-6 record. Including a 6-0 record to finish the 2021 nonconference season, Pacific now has a streak of 17 non-conference matches without a loss (11-0-6). 
 

Men’s tennis player Ran Amar ’24 won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association West Regional and reached the semifinal in the main draw for the Super Regional, finishing the fall ranked No. 120 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.  
 

Liam Egan ’23 was presented with the Elite 90 Award at the 2022 NCAA Men’s Water Polo Championship as the championship’s student-athlete with the highest grade point average. Egan has a 3.94 GPA majoring in Business Administration with a focus on Finance. 

This is the fifth time a Pacific student-athlete has received the Elite 90 Award since 2018. Andrea De Nardi ’19 (men’s water polo) and Viktoria Tamas ’21 (women’s water polo) each earned the award twice. 
 

The volleyball team surged toward excellence at season’s end, winning the last three regular season matches, then earning a bid to the Women’s Invitational Volleyball Championship for the second consecutive year. 

The Tigers reached the round of eight by knocking out Omaha and Santa Clara.

The Tigers look forward to the return of spring sports on the Stockton Campus with men’s swimming and diving Jan. 14, women’s swimming and diving Jan. 14, men’s tennis Jan. 28, women’s tennis Feb. 11, men’s baseball Feb. 18, women’s beach volleyball March 8 and women’s water polo March 19.