What cold? The Washington University basketball teams have been nothing but sizzling through the first month of the spring semester.

I couldn’t keep my eyes off the man on the mound, Mike Mussina. Many others—Bobby Abreu, Hideki Matsui, Andy Pettitte—etched their places in my first era of Bronx baseball. But with Mussina, I had a special relationship.

The Bears said goodbye and said hello; revisited the past and confronted the present; and experienced heartbreaking losses and thrilling victories. Without further ado, here are Student Life’s top 10 sports moments of 2018.

The Bears were nearly flawless in 2018. But the postseason is a cruel game of musical chairs. Instead, the Bears are left not with a throne but outside the ballroom entirely, to the bitter aftertaste of a single blemish: 21-1.

There is no more margin of error. The initial 21 wins in the rearview, Wash. U. needs to collect two more without a loss to claim the title of best in Division III. The Red and Green face No. 3 Middlebury College in the Final Four Friday at UNCG Stadium in Greensboro, N.C.

International athletes make up less than three-fifths of 1 percent of Wash. U.’s 506 varsity athletes, a far cry from the 21.61 percent of international students that enumerate the University’s total enrollment.

The women defeated two-time defending champion Johns Hopkins by a single point to capture the second NCAA championship in program history. Junior Paige Lawler, graduate student Wayne, junior Sophie Watterson, senior Lisa Gorham and senior Molly Shepherd composed the group that brought the title back to Wash. U.

The Washington University men’s cross-country team placed second at the NCAA Championship, the new high-water mark in school history.

The Washington University men’s basketball played the first road game of head coach Pat Juckem’s tenure, dropping a midweek nightcap to Webster University 72-64. The Bears led by 10 midway through the first half before being outscored by 12 in the second Wednesday in nearby Webster Groves, Mo.

The Washington University volleyball team’s season came to a close Saturday afternoon in Chicago’s Ratner Center, as the Bears fell 3-1 to No. 11 Illinois Wesleyan University in the NCAA Tournament second round.