HONOLULU – The 2022-23 season for Chaminade University Athletic programs could be widely seen as one of its most successful to date. Several programs established milestones, were in contention for postseason berths and were highly competitive throughout the academic calendar.
Below is a synopsis for each of the 10 programs starting with the fall 2022 season, continuing to the winter and finishing with the spring '23 sports:
Men's Cross Country
Owen Daugherty continued his outstanding career as a Silversword. In 11 career races during his three-year career, he has been the team's No. 1 finisher in each of them. His third-place overall finish at the Hawai'i Hilo Invitational on Oct. 1 was just seven seconds behind the winning time.
Elijah Bernardo-Flores used his COVID waiver for a fifth year of eligibility which gave him 22 career races which helped earn him a second-place team finish at the Pacific West Conference Championship in San Leandro, California, in his final career race.
Women's Cross Country
The 2022 season marks as the year of
Zoe McDonough who put together one of the most successful individual seasons in a decade. In her first career race, the sophomore was the first non-Division I runner to cross the finish line at the University of Hawai'i Big Wave Invitational on Sept. 3. Two weeks later, McDonough became the first 'Sword to earn medalist honors since 2012 after capturing the Chaminade Invitational title, prompting her to become just the second CUH runner to earn PacWest Runner of the Week honors. Then at the PacWest Championship in San Leandro, California, the team found success by placing eighth, its highest finish at the conference event in 11 years.
Men's Soccer
Although they experienced growing pains in head coach
Joshua Woodard's first year at the helm, the Silverswords had newcomers helping to lead the charge in 2022. Freshman
Owen Caba had a team-leading four goals while fellow freshman
Isaac O'Neill and Cal State Monterey Bay transfer
Ryan Anderson each added two scores. Their 1-0 win over traditional PacWest power Fresno Pacific on Oct. 8 was one of their top performances of the year with goalkeeper
Brandon Yasue keeping the Sunbirds out of the net for his third career clean sheet.
Women's Soccer
The 2022 season might have shown that the previous season was not a fluke with their second consecutive winning season, a first for the program. Not only did they match their 2021 record with seven victories, the 'Swords proved they could play with anyone who stepped on the pitch with them as evidenced by their draws against nationally-ranked foes Hawai'i Hilo and Point Loma. Four of their losses were by one goal.
In her only season in a CUH kit,
Gracie Bowers powered in five goals to earn All-PacWest honors as did
Savannah Breeze Miranda whose two game-winning goals helped her earn a spot on the all-conference second team.
Tehani Smith joined Bowers on the All-PacWest Third Team.
Women's Volleyball
The Silverswords, who were coming off their first PacWest title in 25 years, more than lived up to the lofty expectations that were placed on them entering the year. Chosen to repeat as conference champions, they got off to a slow start, facing a daunting non-conference slate, then mowed through PacWest opponents to the tune of a 19-1 mark and their second straight crown, repeating for the first time in school history. But was in the West Regional where the 'Swords made their mark, pulling off major upsets against top-seed Alaska Anchorage and No. 4 seed Cal Poly Pomona to advance to the program's first regional championship match.
There were plenty of postseason awards to boot with eight team members earning All-PacWest honors with
Alexia Byrnes as the Player and Setter of the Year and Colorado State transfer
Sasha Colombo as the Newcomer of the Year. Both would also garner all-West Region honors.
Men's Basketball
There was plenty of excitement for the 'Swords, whose goal was to qualify for the PacWest Championships which would be held at home in McCabe Gymnasium for the first time ever. But with several excruciating one-score conference defeats in December – two of which came on the final shot of the game – Chaminade on Jan. 8 was just 2-6 in the conference and were forced to play catch up the rest of the season. However, thanks to a 4-1 mark in February, the Silverswords managed to climb their way back into the driver's seat for the sixth and final bid into the PacWest Tournament, although they had to sweat out losses by Dominican and Hawai'i Pacific in late February to earn a spot in front of the home fans.
Although a boisterous home crowd wasn't able to carry the team past defending champion Academy of Art in the first round, the Silverswords had a strong finish to the season.
Isaac Amaral-Artharee and
Braden Olsen earned all-conference honors while
Ross Reeves earned conference Freshman of the Year recognition.
Women's Basketball
Like men's soccer, the 'Swords experienced much growing pains during the year, although there were some shining moments individually. Guard
Dallas Martinez turned the program's first triple-double, posting stellar numbers of 23 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in a Jan. 2 contest against Champion Christian. Meanwhile fellow guard
Olivia Crigler, a transfer from Pacific Union College, was deadly from long range, leading the PacWest with a 3-point average of 2.8 per game while her 57 triples broke the previous single-season record which had stood for 14 years.
Men's Golf
It was true youth movement for head coach
Renee Yuen's squad which had eight newcomers – seven freshmen and a sophomore transfer. One of the freshmen,
Zachary DuBourdieu, was the Silverswords' low-scorer of the season with a per-round average of 77.50. Meanwhile, another freshman,
Ethan Alexander, got a lot of attention at March's PacWest Championship in Litchfield Park, Arizona. Through 36 holes, Alexander was in position to nab the individual title, sitting just three shots off the lead before dropping out of contention midway through the final round. Both DuBourdieu and Alexander were named to the All-PacWest Team.
Softball
With the unveiling of their brand-new Silversword Field at Sand Island Park, the 'Swords wanted to show that a true home field advantage would turn them into a contender. And with a cavernous outfield 225 feet from home plate, they became an offensive juggernaut they envisioned to be. One of their wins came against Concordia, their first over the perineal PacWest champions in 23 years. Finishing third in the PacWest with a team .285 batting average, the 'Swords also flashed their speed in finishing fourth nationally in triples per game (0.24). With the first-ever PacWest Softball Championships on the horizon, the team was in contention for a bid up to the final day of the regular season before falling short, although their 22 wins were the most in a decade.
The slugging Silverswords were not short of recognition, however. A record-six were named to the All-PacWest Teams, led by catcher
Keaolani Takemura, who not only earned first team honors – a first for a Silversword since 2013 – but she along with
Larchelle Tuifao earned all-region kudos. Takemura's academics also earned her a spot in the College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Third Team, just the fifth Chaminade student-athlete to earn such honors.
Women's Tennis
Similar to the men's golf squad,
Ty Aki's team were filled with youngsters with five freshmen. The two returnees were sophomore
Sydney Danielson while their lone upperclassman was senior
Emily Ramirez Miranda. Freshmen
Molly Cookman,
Kirra Carvalho and
Berylin Lau occupied the top three singles spots for the 'Swords with Danielson teaming up with Cookman as their No. 1 doubles team. Ramirez Mirada, whose 2021 junior season was cut short due to an injury, rebounded to play 17 total matches in her final season.
