LEVI COOVERT / CONTRIBUTOR

As October’s spooky season winds up, the San Diego Toreros’ athletic teams have no time for tricks or treats. For many of the fall athletic teams, the season is about halfway finished, meaning games are becoming competitive and playoff seeding coming into the conversation. 

The USD football team has faced a difficult schedule so far, which continued on Oct. 14 with a 30-16 loss at Marist. On Oct. 21, the Torero’s hosted Drake, and suffered another crushing home defeat. USD took a 20-19 lead with 42 seconds left, courtesy of an Isiah Williams’ Touchdown. However, Drake pulled off a miraculous 42 second scoring drive, capped off by a 38-yard touchdown pass from QB Luke Bailey as time expired. USD is now 1-6 on the season. One standout player on the team is graduate senior Jayden Wickware, who previously played for Princeton for three years. Wickware lead the Toreros with five sacks this season,  and  also contributed four QB hits and an interception so far. The Toreros host Wickware State on Oct. 28 at 2p.m. for the Homecoming game. 

The volleyball team has a 4-2 record in the month of October, with their latest two wins coming over San Francisco and Portland. Their two losses came at the hands of LMU,and Pepperdine, the two teams ahead of them in the WCC. USD is now in 3rd place, with a 7-2 league record and an 11-8 overall record. Recent highlights from the season include USD senior Madi Allen recording her 1,000th career dig, and USD senior Isadora Tercariol recording her 1,500th career assist. 

The women’s soccer team, despite having lost  three games in  a   row,  had   something  to  cheer about this week. USD sophomore Josephine Schlichting’s goal on Wednesday, Oct. 18, made ESPN’s nightly Top 10 Plays list, although the girls ultimately lost the game 4-2 against Saint Mary’s College. Most recently, the girls lost 0-3 on Oct. 21 at the University of San Francisco. 

Meanwhile, the men’s soccer team has an undefeated conference record (2-0), and is contending for a WCC title. In a highly anticipated matchup against rival SDSU, the men tied 1-1 and kept it a very competitive game. On Oct. 21, USD lost their first match in two weeks, falling 1-5 at the hands of the #12 ranked Portland. 

The USD Men’s rowing team competed last weekend at the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston, one of the largest collegiate regatta’s in the U.S. They finished second place in the Varsity 4+ Category, with a time of 17:14.02. 

USD’s cross country team recently competed in the Highlander Classic, hosted by University of California, Riverside. The USD women finished 16th, while the men finished 24th. Danielle Hubble, for the women’s team, had a strong finish, leading the women’s team by finishing 64th overall, with a time of 21:56:0. Hubble was named WCC Runner of the Week earlier this year, and continued  her  very strong season. 

The men’s tennis team recently hosted the San Diego Veterans Classic. They won 10 matches total, including 5 out of 6 against Navy and 4 out of 6 against Boise State. 

USD sophomore Nikhil Niranjan shined, winning 5 out of his 6 matches, while graduate transfer student Savriyan Danilov, who is from Moscow, Russia, made his home debut for USD with two victories. Last weekend, the squad competed in the ITA southwest regionals, where three Toreros advanced to the Semifinals. 

USD sophomore Oliver Tarvet went to the semifinal in singles, while Sacchitt Sharrma (Senior) and Iiro Vasa (Junior) went to the semifinals as a doubles pair. 

The women’s tennis team also competed at the San Diego Veterans Classic, and won 6 of 9 matches overall. They won two each against Denver, Navy and LMU. Last weekend on Oct. 21, they competed in the ITA Southwest Regionals, and like the men’s team, saw multiple players make deep runs. USD sophomore Mia Mack and Senior Elizabeth Goldsmith went to the quarterfinals for doubles, and Goldsmith also went the quarterfinals for singles. Junior Claudia De Las Heras also defied the odds to made the singles quarterfinals despite being ranked at No. 97 going into the tournament. 

For many of USD’s teams, it has been an up-and-down season, but no matter the record, there has been a lot of individual and team success for all of USD’s fall sports.