A Season of Broken Records, Notable Performances, and Championships
UNC Greensboro Spartans prevailed during the 2025 spring athletics season, with historic wins, broken records, standout players, and high honors. Here’s a rundown of notable moments in spring sports.
BASKETBALL
Women
The Spartan Women’s Basketball Team logged the biggest story in UNCG sports this spring, earning the regular season title outright for the second time in history, then winning the SoCon Tournament in overtime against Chattanooga 64-57 to become champions and earn a berth in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament for the first time this century.
In the championship game, kinesiology grad student Khalis Cain scored a personal best 20 points, crossing the 1,000-point mark for her college career, while pulling down 12 rebounds and adding five blocks. She also surpassed 1,000 career rebounds this season. Cain was named SoCon Tournament MVP and made the All-Tournament First Team.
Teammate Jayde Gamble, who scored her 1,000th career point earlier in the season, dropped 29 points in that tournament and grabbed 11 rebounds to make the SoCon All-Tournament Second Team. She was also named to the SoCon All-Conference Second Team.
Head Coach Trina Patterson, who was named SoCon Coach of the Year for the third time since she began at the helm of the Spartans nine seasons ago, registered her fourth season with 20 wins or more. In April she was named to the 2025 Achieving Coaching Excellence Women’s College Basketball Honor Roll.
On the way to their championship, the Spartans rode a 14-game winning streak, the longest in the team’s Division I era, and went undefeated on their home court at Fleming Gymnasium.
Men
The Spartan men’s squad finished the regular season in second place, entering the SoCon Tournament with a 2-seed.
Season highlights include two 100-point victories – a 105-50 win against Virginia University of Lynchburg in December and the regular-season final–game win against Samford, 108-100. It was the eighth season of the last nine with 20 or more wins.
Junior Kenyon Giles made All-SoCon First Team, while classmate Donovan Atwell was selected for the All-SoCon Third Team. Giles had a career-best season, averaging 15.3 points, 1.1 steals, and 2.9 rebounds per game. Atwell placed Top 50 in the nation for three-pointers per game (34th, 3.00), three-point percentage (38th/40.2), and three-point shots made (43rd/96).
At the season’s end, Head Coach Mike Jones was named a finalist for the 2024-25 Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year for the eighth time in his coaching career. The 20-12 overall record was the eighth time for Jones winning 20 or more games and third-straight year at the helm of the Spartans.
SOFTBALL
The Spartans Softball team finished their season in second place in the SoCon with a 39-18 record, 14-6 in conference play, entering the SoCon Tournament with a 2-seed.
Macy Michael was named SoCon Freshman of the Year, finishing with a .344 batting average and 45 hits, nine of which were home runs. Michael was selected for the All–Conference Second Team and, with teammate Hadley Gardner, the All-Freshman Team. Kaylyn Belfield, Grace Loftin, and Jorde Chartrand made the All-Conference First Team. Loftin and Chartrand were also honored by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association by being placed on All-Mid-Atlantic Region teams.
The Spartans led the SoCon in home runs (80), home runs per game (1.40) on-base percentage (0.387), RBI per game (5.58), scoring (5.86), slugging percentage (0.527), sacrifice flies (20)
They finished 16th in the entire NCAA in home runs, 15th in homers per game, 19th in sacrifice bunts, and 29th in slugging percentage and 39th in total RBI.
BASEBALL
Finishing sixth in the SoCon and bowing out of the tournament after the first game against Wofford, Spartan baseball benefited from strong individual play, with four team members named to SoCon All-Conference teams. Senior pitcher Danny Thompson Jr. made All-SoCon First Team, junior infielder Jacob Budzik landed on the All So-Con Defensive Team, and freshmen Parker Wight (1B) and JJ Parsons (C) were named to the All-SoCon Freshman Team.
Five players achieved Academic All-District honors: seniors Sam Murchison (RHP) and Rob Ready (RHP), juniors Luke Jenkins (OF), along with Budzik (INF), and sophomore Brantley Truitt (OF).
GOLF
Women
The high point of the women’s golf season came with a win at the Puerto Rico Shootout, finishing abbreviated play at two-over-par to log the team’s first tournament win since 2008-09 at the UNCG Starmount Classic. Freshman Lulu Leetham finished second in individual play at four-under-par.
The team finished fifth or better in nine of its 12 events this season, including a fourth-place finish at the SoCon Tournament, which was the best showing since 2013 when the team finished in third place. Senior Ava Romfo won the individual title in the UNCG Collegiate in October. And the entire team competed in the National Golf Invitational, held in Maricopa, Arizona,in May, where they finished fourth overall.
Men
The men’s golf team ended the 2024-2025 season with four first-place finishes in the regular season – the Sea Palms Invitational, the Dorado Beach Collegiate, the Elon Invitational, and the Bryan National Collegiate, where Kelvin Hernandez found his first collegiate win. These were the most first-place finishes since 2018-19, when they won the SoCon title. The team finished second in the SoCon Tournament this year, where Colin Dutton finished in first place.
The team landed in second place in the SoCon Championships at –18. Three players – Lewis, Dutton, and Marcotte, made All-SoCon teams. During the season, the team earned five SoCon Golfer of the Week accolades: Jake Lewis (twice), Jack Marcotte, Dutton, and Hernandez. Dutton finished in the top 50 in the NCAA Regionals, with one eagle, four birdies and 35 even par holes. The entire team cheered on golf alumni Randall Hudson, who made his PGA Tour debut this year at the ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Classic in May.
TENNIS
Women
In Head Coach Mat Iandolo’s first season with UNCG Women’s Tennis, the team finished 3-17 overall, going winless in conference play. But Elisabeth Birkevold was named to the SoCon All-Freshman Team, the first Spartan to attain this honor since 2019. Four players earned spots on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team: Sydney Bly, Olivia Gallagher, Raegan Mitchell, and Lauren Thomson.
Men
The Men’s Spartan tennis squad entered the SoCon Tournament after a sixth-place regular season finish, logging all of its nine wins at home. Highlights included the doubles team of Andrew Black and Devon Moskowitz who landed at No. 79 in the Intercollegiate Doubles Rankings in December for their first national ranking, Moskowitz also led the team in singles wins with a 14-7 record.
Four Spartans earned spots on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team : Black,Moskowitz,John Gabelic, and Luke Thomson.
Tymofiy Khrystyuk also earned a spot on the SoCon All-Conference Singles Second Team.
TRACK
Women
Bright spots in the women’s track season include a strong season by Emma Berrier, who won Spiro’s Comeback Player of the Year after logging five career-best times in the indoor 800-meter event, the indoor mile, the indoor 3,000-meter, and the outdoor 5,000-meter and 1,500-meter.
Also of note, Milania Millard broke the UNCG outdoor record in the 200-meter run at the Aggie Classic in March with a time of 26.38.
Men
Prior to postseason competition, Andrew Hamilton broke the UNCG indoor record for the 1000-meter run with a time of 2:29.96 at the Liberty Open. The previous record was set in 2010 by Terry Wyatt. Samuel Barnard and Hamilton now sit first and second, respectively, in the UNCG record book for the indoor 800-meter run. They made their mark in UNCG history in February at the GVSU Big Meet. The distance medley relay team of Hamilton, Barnard, Glodi Mvovi, and Brodie Schneider also broke the UNCG distance medley relay record at the GVSU Big Meet, a 13-year old record. The same quartet also broke the 4×400-meter relay indoor record at the same meet, previously set in 2020.
Three Spartans from the men’s track team earned spots on the All-SoCon Freshman Team during the SoCon Indoor Track & Field Championships: Logan Ruffner(1 mile), Brodie Schneider (800-meter), and Pierson Guerrant (3,000-meter). Also at the SoCon Indoor Championships, Samuel Barnard finished third in the 800-meter race while the men’s distance medley team – Lane Procheska, Glodi Movi, Andrew Hamilton, and Schneider – also finished third.
Hamilton and Barnard, respectively, also sit first and second in the UNCG outdoor record book in the 800-meter run. Hamilton snapped the 19-year-old mark with a time of 1:51.41 at the Charlotte Invitational in April.
Ruffner (1500-meter) and Guerrant (5000-meter) both earned another All-SoCon Freshman Team honor, this time during the SoCon Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Story by Brian Clarey
Photos courtesy UNCG Athletics
