Captain Wyatt Moore shares thoughts on the upcoming season
BY DANIELLE WIRNOWSKI — sports@theaggie.org
While UC Davis is home to competitive Division I athletic programs, club sports play an equally important role in campus life. These student-run teams offer opportunities for students to stay active, build close friendships and represent the school in a different way.
Club sports often do not receive the same level of attention or support as their varsity counterparts, but this can give clubs without a varsity counterpart an advantage.
While a student may come to UC Davis thinking there is no opportunity to play hockey at the collegiate level, they have yet to discover the club hockey team. The UC Davis club hockey team, which lacks a Division I counterpart, serves as the highest level of hockey representation at UC Davis.
The regular season for UC Davis’ club hockey team runs from the beginning of fall quarter up until the end of winter quarter. The team has the opportunity to play into spring quarter if they make the playoffs.
The Aggies are part of the Pacific Collegiate Hockey Association (PCHA) and play against other University of California (UC) schools, local universities and out-of-state schools.
The club has made much progress in recent years compared to its start in the 1980s, both in outreach and with regards to its players.
“I came in as a first-year and there were 11 people in the club,” the club hockey team’s Captain, Wyatt Moore, a fifth-year mechanical and aerospace engineering major, said. “Maybe two or three of us had really competitive hockey experience before and coming into this year. We have 45 members now.”
The expansion of the team over the past few years has increased the team’s scores and potential for success.
“We had all the skill in the world last year, and this year, it’s really about coming together,” Moore said. “This is the year to really try and go do something special.”
The team went to the Western Collegiate Hockey Conference playoffs for the first time since 2020, but lost to Arizona State University in the semi-finals in February 2025. Moore reflected on the semi-finals with a positive outlook.
“Even on the side of a loss, I thought that was one of our best games of the season,” Moore said. “I’m pretty confident that if we play to our abilities, we should go undefeated. [We] can play off of strengths and [we] can play to their weaknesses.”
Like many other sports, hockey is a team-based game. Success is determined not just by the individual skills and talents of the players, but also by how well a team plays together; a big part of which is formed by the team’s culture and bond.
“The hockey culture in California is very tight-knit,” Moore said. “There’s a lot of prior connections, it really fosters a close connection and it’s really fun to get involved as early as you can.”
These prior connections create a tight-knit club hockey team, strengthening their bond and increasing their ability to work together in an effort to make the playoffs again this year. Next, the Aggies play against Santa Clara State University on Nov. 8 at the Vacaville Ice Sports Center.
Written by: Danielle Wirnowski — sports@theaggie.org
