BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:UC Irvine earns its best ranking for Directors Cup

UC Irvine, with the benefit of an NCAA championship in men’s volleyball and a third-place showing by the baseball team at the College World Series, earned its best finish ever in the U.S. Sports Academy Directors’ Cup standings at 56th.

The Directors’ Cup is compiled annually by the Collegiate Directors of Athletics, United States Sports Academy and USA Today to rank the best overall collegiate athletics programs among the country’s 285 Division I schools.

That means the Anteaters were among the top 20% nationally, in terms of success program wide.

UCI accumulated 367 points. In addition to the aforementioned achievements, women’s golf was 19th at the NCAA Championship, while and postseason appearances were also turned in the spring by men’s golf and women’s tennis.

In the winter, men’s and women’s swimming garnered points for finishing 25th and 33rd, respectively, at the NCAA Championships.

Stanford captured its 13th straight Directors’ Cup with 1,429 points.

Points are awarded based on each institution’s finish in up to 20 sports -- 10 women’s and 10 men’s.

— From staff reports