Anderson Haigler

A Volleyball Duo For The Ages

Thirty-one matches was enough for a lot of things to happen in 2018. It was enough for San Diego volleyball to notch 18 wins — three against ranked teams — and reach the NCAA Tournament's Sweet 16 in one of USD's most accomplished seasons to date. A timeframe substantial enough for then-freshmen Annie Benbow and Katie Lukes to combine for nearly 200 digs and 230 kills as they got their college careers underway in impressive fashion, setting parallel paths of success into motion. Nearly five years later, however, Benbow is quick to point out what didn't immediately crystallize during those 31 contests.
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University of San Diego Athletics •

Bright Future an Understatement for Award-Winning Elena Elie

"I was working hard and I was pursuing goals, but I was also just hanging out with my friends," she recalls with a touch of nostalgia, now several weeks removed from graduation. "Sitting in the sun and playing in the water…like what's better than that?" To hear it from Elie, her last four years were challenging, but no more so than anybody else's at the small Catholic school on the hill. Classes came and went. She studied, worked hard, carved out time to have fun, and went about her business,
University of San Diego Athletics •

"Sky's The Limit" for San Diego Baseball in 2023

As a chilly spring rain fell last June outside of Oregon State's Omaha Room, where College World Series trophies greet visitors before they perform their postgame media obligations at historic Goss Stadium, San Diego baseball head coach Brock Ungricht wasted no time in summarizing the impact of the Toreros' most successful season in more than a decade. "It was huge to show people what we're about….we're not going away, we're gonna be here," Ungricht said that evening after a whirlwind week that saw his team take down perennial power Vanderbilt at the oldest ballpark in college baseball. "I think it definitely puts the brand back on the map."
University of San Diego Athletics •

Upcoming Season For Volleyball "As Real As It Gets"

As her players arrange themselves for the photo, Jennifer Petrie can't help but laugh. In full uniform, with the Pacific Ocean at their backs on a picture-perfect San Diego afternoon ahead of their annual beach photoshoot, her Torero volleyball team is jockeying for position atop a park bench overlooking Sunset Cliffs, and time is running out. Sophomore defensive specialist Anna Jaworowski has two minutes and counting to get a picture for the popular app "BeReal," which prompts users at random each day to take a picture of what they're doing to…well, be more real, and the veteran head coach has been entrusted to get one that has the entire team in it. As the clock winds down, Petrie snaps the photo, delighting her 18 scholar-athletes when her smiling face fills the selfie camera's section of the digital keepsake. These days, there's a lot to smile about for San Diego volleyball.
University of San Diego Athletics •

A Dream Come True for Ungricht, A New Era for the Toreros

The conversation slows as the final topic is considered, then the group decides that a profile of the team's new head coach is in order. Ungricht pauses for perhaps the first time all morning as the topic is broached, then speaks quietly, a different, more serious tone than the one he took in the first hour and a half of the meeting. "The story shouldn't just be about me," he politely suggests as he motions toward the rest of the suite and the field below, where his players are getting loose
University of San Diego Athletics •

Steady As Ever, Jefferis Ready to Make a Splash in Junior Season

SAN DIEGO — Walk by Fowler Park at any given hour when there's not a game or a practice, and you'll likely hear it. It comes from the first-base side of the field, just past the visitor's dugout, and it doesn't matter whether it's day, night, or something in between — odds are, you'll hear it. "Fowler Park works," he texts the night before to confirm the meeting's location before adding a helpful hint. "I'll probably be hitting." "That guy will show up, he's not going to say a word, but
University of San Diego Athletics •

Unfinished Business

Good news like this was too sweet to get through the grapevine. "It was kind of funny, actually," Bird recalled. "We had known, and all of our teammates had pretty much known that we were gonna come back. In our post-season meeting with Coach Fisher, she was like, 'So what are your plans for next year? Are you gonna come back?'" Several months later, there's an ease in Bird's voice as she describes the moment and relays how the group answered their coach's query with a question of their
University of San Diego Athletics •

Toreros Together

As all ten players reached the suburban summit, Scholl snapped a picture before his team embraced him, the workout and a summer full of preparation concluded. Fall practices and an important 2021-2022 season awaited USD, but for the time being the third-year coach was satisfied. In a quiet moment minutes later, mere months removed from a season in which circumstances out of his and his players' control forced the team apart, he tweeted the photo along with a simple dispatch. "Finishing an Ou
TC NATIONALS •

14U TC Nationals championship a dream come true for Firecrackers Weil

RIVERSIDE, CALIF. — Brianne Weiss had dreamed of this moment, of a chance to pitch her team to a national championship, of an opportunity to compete against the best and make good on her team’s lofty ambitions. So when a nagging back injury flared up — one that had forced her out of her last game — the left-handed pitcher did what she had to do to stay in the circle, helping to pitch the Firecrackers Weil to a 5-2 win over the Orange County Batbusters Stith in the 14U cham
SBLive California •

Ray Cebulski, Marcelo Mayer lead Eastlake to CIF San Diego Section Open Division baseball title

POWAY, Calif. — Championship aspirations at Eastlake began as early as middle school for Ray Cebulski and Marcelo Mayer. “Me and Marcelo became friends, and we knew we wanted to win a championship every time we played,” Cebulski said. On a warm summer night at Poway High School, both players were key. And when the dust settled, both were 2021 CIF San Diego Section Open Division Baseball champions, taking down Grossmont by a score of 8-3 to make good on a sense of ambition that had spanned seve
University of San Diego Athletics •

Wanting It More Than They Fear It

The message rings out clearly through the USD Softball Complex, even ifhas to shout to be heard through her face mask."Want it," the first-year head coach implores her team, "more than you fear it."What "it" will ultimately be for San Diego softball remains to be seen. But with an esteemed and energetic leader at the helm, 12 new players, and a talented contingent of returners, hope is springing eternal on the Northeast point of Alcala Park. And the team certainly isn't lacking for "want," or mo
University of San Diego Athletics •

Tuning Out the Noise

SAN DIEGO—Spend enough time in the Jenny Craig Pavilion when it's empty — before a practice, or perhaps late at night after a game — and you'll notice some things. The low hum of the lights when there's no cheering fans there to drown it out. How the sound of a dribbled basketball echoes throughout the venue as 5,100 empty seats look on. You'll notice more than anything else, of course, that it's much quieter than you're used to it being, as nearly all college basketball facilities will be this
University of San Diego Athletics •

The Timeless Jenny Craig Pavilion

SAN DIEGO - It would be hard to pinpoint the exact moment when USD Athletics outgrew its old venue for basketball and volleyball, the Sports Center. Perhaps it was when fans began hopping fences to sneak in and catch a peek of a sold-out men’s basketball game. Not even Bill Walton could get a seat at gametime for the Toreros’ matchup against LMU in 1990 — the basketball legend tried, but was turned away. There simply wasn’t enough room. Or maybe it was when an official count of seats in the gy
The San Diego Union-Tribune •

Senior moments denied by virus

This wasn’t how Christian Becerra imagined his high school baseball career coming to a close. The hard-throwing right-hander and his Madison teammates were supposed to be competing for a championship ring late into spring. “I thought our team was good enough this year to potentially have won it all,” Becerra said. Instead, what most likely will be the 6-foot-2 senior’s final game — a 4-1 win over Granite Hills on March 11 — has come and gone without fanfare. Warhawks coach Robert Lovato warn
USD Student Media •

Analysis: Are ASG’s struggles unique?

As USD cuts newspapers and conceals budget, LMU and Chapman do the opposite Upon first glance, it is easy to see the similarities between Loyola Marymount University and the University of San Diego. Both are located in Southern California with pristine, palm tree-filled campuses near the Pacific Ocean. Both are private Catholic institutions with undergraduate student bodies of 6,700 and 5,900, respectively. The two schools compete against each other in athletics in the West Coast Conference. So
University of San Diego Athletics •

Michel Begins New Chapter in Iceland

Roughly seventeen miles separate Amber Michel's hometown and the University of San Diego. Electing to stay close to home for college, the goalkeeper frequented East County's freeways as she commuted from El Cajon, Calif. to Alcala Park for her first two years as a Torero."That's kinda why I chose USD," the 23-year-old said as she reflected back on her five years with the team. "Because it was close to home, and because I loved the weather and the city."Staying local for school proved to be the right decision. A
University of San Diego Athletics •

Start to Redemption Suddenly Ends for Lawrence

Anthony Lawrence's first trip to Japan spanned roughly eight months. It saw him learn a new language, successfully acclimate to an unfamiliar culture, and perhaps most notably, come within two points of an X-League Championship as the Panasonic Impulse's starting quarterback. On his return trip last week, he barely had time to unpack his suitcase. Lawrence — the most prolific passing quarterback in both San Diego and Pioneer Football League history — had a feeling that the X-League's spring season was in danger of being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "I definitely wasn't super comfortable with it," Lawrence said of traveling in the midst of the coronavirus. "I was waiting, expecting it (to be canceled). When I said bye to my parents, I was expecting to see
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