Spartans Close 2025-26 with Championship Momentum, Academic Records and Program Growth
6/3/2026 7:15:00 PM | General
As the sun sets on another athletic and academic year, USC Upstate Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Matt Martin has taken a moment to look back on a year defined by championship moments, record-setting academic success and continued momentum across the department.
“It feels like yesterday we were welcoming our first student-athletes back to campus at the end of last summer,” Martin said. “Then you look at the calendar, blink, and it is finals week and graduation. It goes by so quickly.”
For the Spartans, the 2025-26 season brought a little bit of everything. There were deep postseason runs, program-best finishes, school records, new programs and another championship moment for one of the Big South Conference’s most consistent programs.
“What an incredibly successful year for our programs,” Martin said. “From day one to today, our student-athletes have been putting in hard work in the classroom and in competition, and the results show that work has paid off.”
One of the defining athletic achievements came from USC Upstate softball, which once again rose to the moment in May. Playing as the No. 2 seed and tournament host at Hawkins Field at Cyrill Stadium, the Spartans captured their third straight Big South Tournament championship, cementing the program’s status as one of the league’s premier teams.
Upstate opened its title path with a 5-1 win over No. 1 Winthrop, then added a 1-0 shutout victory over No. 3 Radford in the semifinals. In the championship final, the Spartans left no doubt, defeating Winthrop 12-2 in five innings behind 15 hits, three home runs and a dominant all-around performance.
The title gave USC Upstate an automatic berth to the 2026 NCAA Softball Regionals and marked another historic chapter for a program that has made championship weekends an annual expectation.
The Spartans weren't done making noise either. Upstate defeated both Southeastern Louisiana (5-4) and Belmont (10-1) on its way to the regional final in the NCAA Tournament, ultimately falling to top-ranked Alabama. The Spartans wrapped up the year with the best and deepest NCAA Tournament run in program history.
The magic didn't stop there for the spring sports.
Another defining achievement for the green and white was on the baseball diamond. USC Upstate baseball ripped off victories in 14 of its final 16 games, including a 6-3 win over Clemson at Fifth Third Park. In the Big South Baseball Championship, the Spartans run-ruled second-seeded Winthrop and shut out top-ranked High Point on their way to repeating as Big South champions. Upstate then advanced to the Tuscaloosa Regional as the No. 3 seed and defeated Oklahoma State, 8-5, before its season came to an end.
That competitive success extended well beyond softball and baseball.
Women’s soccer finished second in the Big South regular-season standings with a 6-2 conference record and advanced all the way to the Big South Tournament Championship Game before falling to High Point in penalties. Men’s soccer also took a step forward, reaching the Big South Tournament semifinals for the first time since 2022.
Men’s cross country delivered the highest Big South Championship finish in program history, placing fourth before competing at the NCAA Southeast Regional. Men’s golf reached the Big South Championship match-play final, finishing as conference runner-up. Men’s basketball also showed meaningful growth, posting a seven-game improvement and several firsts under second-year head coach Marty Richter.
Track and field continued to raise the standard for the Spartans. During the outdoor season, USC Upstate recorded seven podium finishes, 21 personal records, 43 top finishes and three school records. Shriyaan Krishnaraj led the way with a gold medal in the men’s 400-meter hurdles, clocking a school-record time of 51.69. The men’s team finished third with 122.5 points, the second-most points ever scored by the program at the conference meet.
The year also marked a new chapter for USC Upstate with the debut of the Spartans’ first varsity competitive dance and cheer teams. In its first year, the dance program placed fourth in DI Small Hip-Hop and seventh in Rally Dance at the College Classic Nationals.
Next year, the department will continue to grow its offerings with the addition of women’s flag football.
“We have had another year of success and are looking forward to what the 2026 and 2027 seasons bring,” Martin said. “There are a lot of exciting things happening, from women’s flag football to the momentum we are seeing in several sports — I can’t wait.”
For Martin, though, the year's most important achievement came in the classroom.
USC Upstate student-athletes continued their long-standing tradition of academic excellence by delivering another record-breaking performance. For the fourth straight term, the Spartans posted a cumulative department-wide grade point average above 3.30, including a record 3.36 GPA during the fall semester. The department’s 3.36 cumulative GPA for the 2025-26 academic year is another record for USC Upstate Athletics.
In total, 173 Spartans maintained a GPA of 3.5 or higher, while 57 student-athletes posted a perfect 4.0 GPA.
“It is easy to get distracted by athletic performance, but we are focused on building holistic student-athlete success,” Martin said. “The biggest achievement we want here is the success of our student-athletes in the classroom and beyond their time on campus.”
That balance between academic achievement, athletic growth and student-athlete development has become central to USC Upstate’s continued progress. The Spartans won championships, reached finals, broke records and built momentum, but the larger story was a department continuing to move forward together.
Martin said that progress is not possible without the people surrounding the student-athletes and coaches, from campus leadership to fans, donors and season ticket holders.
“We would not have had the success we had this year without alignment from our campus leadership and community support from donors and season ticket holders,” Martin said. “It takes all of us to be where we are, and it will continue to take all of us to keep building.”
As the 2025-26 year closes, USC Upstate does so with championship hardware, academic records and optimism for what comes next. The Spartans have built momentum across multiple programs and, with new opportunities on the horizon, the next chapter is already beginning to take shape.
