Something to shout about: Saint Mary’s students cheer as the Gaels Men’s Basketball defeats Gonzaga. Fans had lots to celebrate this academic year—on the court, the field, the pitch, and more. / Photo by Tod Fierner for SMC Athletics
Kroner’s Corner Year in Review: The Most Successful Year in Saint Mary’s Athletics History
The Gaels are the only Division I team in the country to win back-to-back conference championships in Softball, Baseball, and Men’s Basketball. They slayed giants and shocked the country with upsets.
Saint Mary’s Men’s Basketball, Softball, and Baseball teams each repeated as a West Coast Conference champion this past season—and each displayed a flair for the dramatic in doing so. Their combined feat gives the Gaels a unique distinction: SMC is the only Division I school in the country to win back-to-back conference championships in those three sports.
As we wrap up the academic and athletic year, here are a few highlights.
Three Back-to-Back Championships
The Saint Mary’s men’s hoops team had to win all eight of its February games and did just that. The Gaels capped that run with a 70–59 victory over Gonzaga at UCU Pavilion to tie the Zags for the regular-season title with a 16–2 conference mark.
It was the fourth straight season in which the Gaels earned at least a share of the WCC championship.
Saint Mary’s Softball, under the guidance of Head Coach Sonja Garnett, won all six of its conference series but still needed a 3–2 victory at Santa Clara on the second-to-last day of the regular season to clinch the outright title and a berth in an NCAA regional. Hannah Ferguson’s RBI single in the seventh inning lifted the Gaels over the Broncos.
The program has grabbed at least a share of the WCC title for three consecutive years.
Saint Mary’s Baseball, led by Head Coach Eric Valenzuela, rolled to three straight wins—over Pepperdine, regular-season champ Gonzaga, and Pacific—in the WCC tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona, before an epic Saturday to wrap up the tournament.
In the first championship match-up, the Gaels lost 9–8 to USF. That meant after a quick break, the teams took the field once more. In the second game, Saint Mary’s responded with a 7–6 thriller over the Dons, giving SMC back-to-back tourney titles. Lefty David Roberts recorded the final three outs, enabling the Gaels to both celebrate and exhale.
Celebration and Motivation
The repeat titles by those three programs are the main—but certainly not the only—reasons SMC Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Mike Matoso takes great pride in what the athletic department accomplished in the 2025–26 school year.
“When you start to see that success, it kind of goes throughout our entire department,” Matoso says. “It motivates our other coaches and our other student-athletes as well. They see it and think, ‘Well, why can’t we do this as well?’”
Two more women’s teams enjoyed stellar seasons, though they didn’t get to experience postseason play. Led by Sidney Middaugh with 10 goals, and under the guidance of Head Coach Theresa Romagnolo, SMC Women’s Soccer went 12–2–4 (7–1–3 WCC), finished one point behind conference champ Pepperdine, and owned a ratings percentage index (RPI) of 41. Given their record, the Gaels were a conspicuous omission when invites went out for the NCAA Tournament. In the WCC, Ramogno was named Coach of the Year, and the Gaels’ Kate Plachy earned recognition as Goalkeeper of the Year.
Saint Mary’s Beach Volleyball, coached by Janice Harrer, achieved a 26–12 record—a new high bar for the program for wins—and went 8–3 in the WCC. Hannah Couch put together what is arguably the best résumé in SMC Beach Volleyball history; she’s now both the player with the most wins and most match appearances in program history. She and Hannah Glick—who was the winningest Gael in a single season in program history—both earned second team All-WCC team nods, and Isla Johnson was named to the WCC All-Freshman team.
The NCAA and Shifts in Collegiate Athletics
The Gaels’ overall success in 2025–26 came in the wake of the House settlement in June 2025 that altered the landscape of college sports. The $20.5 million revenue-share money that schools can pay their student-athletes, combined with the relatively recent additions of NIL and the transfer portal, might have prompted some athletic departments to make drastic changes.
“I think last year was hard with the House settlement,” Saint Mary’s Mike Matoso acknowledges. “You’re wondering, ‘What’s going to happen? Are we going to survive this thing?’ I was really careful not to knee-jerk and say, ‘We’re cutting sports’ or, ‘We're cutting scholarships.’ I kind of equate it to Y2K: There was this big buildup, and then it came and you're like, ‘Well, nothing happened.’ … We just stayed the course with what we had been doing.”
Perhaps it’s more accurate to say: stayed the course and did something no other school accomplished with those three back-to-back titles.
The Softball and Baseball teams made strong statements in their respective NCAA regional tournaments. On May 16 in Eugene, Oregon, the Softball squad earned the first two regional wins in program history, topping Idaho State 3–1 and then eliminating host Oregon 5–4.
Hannah Ferguson had five hits over those two games, and pitcher Odhi Vasquez earned the decision in relief in both wins. Though Mississippi State knocked out the Gaels the next day, SMC had thoroughly validated its 42–16 record. They also broke 19 program records—including most wins and the longest winning streak in SMC softball history. And Vasquez was named one of the top 100 players in the country.
Two weeks later, Eric Valenzuela and the Gaels Baseball team left their mark on the national stage by beating No. 1 UCLA not just once but twice in three days, ousting the Bruins from the regional they hosted. Jacob Johnson’s two opposite-field solo homers keyed the Gaels’ 3–2 win in the opener May 29—an upset that shocked the country. Two days later, Ian Armstrong’s RBI single with two outs in the ninth sent the game to extra innings. Makoa Sniffen’s single with two outs in the 10th brought home Cody Kashimoto for a 6–5 victory, likely the most significant in program history. The win earned Saint Mary’s a spot in a regional final for the first time ever.
The Gaels later fell to regional champ Cal Poly. But what they did that weekend at Jackie Robinson Stadium will be remembered for years to come.
How They Compete and Win
Only a handful of Division I teams make the NCAA regional finals—a feat achieved by both Saint Mary’s Baseball and Softball programs. Saint Mary’s was the only school outside of the SEC, Big 12, and ACC conferences to accomplish that. The Gaels’ Softball program finished the 2026 season as the top-ranked mid-major program in the country according to D1 Softball, and SMC even cracked the top 25 in the national D1 Softball poll, coming in at No. 24 in the final poll released on June 9.
Sizing up the remarkable finishes for both Softball and Baseball, Mike Matoso says, “To see this small, private school go compete at that high of a level is definitely a testament to our head coaches and all of our staff that help them out and to our kids to be in that mindset to play and compete.”
Looking to the 2026–27 school year, major changes are on the horizon in some respects. Gonzaga is leaving the WCC for the reconstituted Pac-12, with the University of Denver joining the conference. After Randy Bennett led the Men’s Basketball program for 25 seasons, he departed for Arizona State in March. Former SMC guard and longtime assistant coach Mickey McConnell has taken the helm as head coach at Saint Mary’s. McConnell already generated buzz this spring when the Gaels signed Darius Bivins; the point guard out of Washington, DC, is a McDonald’s All-American and the highest-ranked recruit Saint Mary’s has ever signed.
Saint Mary’s is also making a splash with four new teams competing as part of a new Aquatics program, which was announced last year and will play its first season this year. Gaels will take to the water in Women’s and Men’s Swimming and Women’s and Men’s Water Polo. The programs have already drawn top talent from the Bay Area, across the country, and around the world.
The way Matoso sees it, “We’ve just got to worry about us and take care of what we’re doing,” he says. “I think we’re really good at being really efficient in the dollars that we spend and how we invest. The one thing I think I’ve learned in my time as an athletic director is you hire good people and you keep people—and then you just let ’em do their jobs. … We’re never going to have the fanciest of facilities or the bells and the whistles, but I think we hire really good head coaches and we recruit really tough, smart kids who want to compete and win. And we have a passionate fan base, loyal alumni, and generous donors—which all make Saint Mary’s such a special place.”
Steve Kroner has covered Bay Area sports for more than four decades, mainly at KPIX-TV (Channel 5) and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has worked as an analyst alongside Brian Brownfield on SMC Men’s Basketball telecasts on ESPN+ the past two seasons.
