Sports

Aleksandar Gavalyugov Transfers to Santa Clara

Katie Lewis, Co-Sports Editor

April 17, 2025

Gavalyugov hails from Bulgaria’s capital city, Sofia.

Freshman guard Aleksandar “Sasha” Gavalyugov will be heading to California as the first 2024-25 Villanova player to relocate through the transfer portal.

On Thursday, April 17, Jonathan Givony of ESPN announced that Gavalyugov’s agent, Deirunas Visockas, informed him of the Bulgarian native’s decision to commit to Santa Clara University.

Gavalyugov entered the transfer portal on April 11 after a short-lived debut collegiate season at Villanova. He missed most of the season due to an ankle injury in December.

Gavalyugov played in four early-season games off the bench, averaging 4.8 minutes and two points per game. In his last game of the season, Gavalyugov scored a season-high six points against Temple in the Big 5 Classic on Dec. 7.

Santa Clara finished the season with a 21-13 overall record and 12-6 record in the West Coast Conference. The Broncos ended their 2024-25 season in the second round of the National Invite Tournament (NIT), and Gavalyugov will be part of their quest to rebuild.

With Gavalyugov off to the West Coast, five other former Wildcats remain in the transfer portal: redshirt junior Nnanna Njoku, redshirt freshman Kris Parker, freshman Josiah Moseley, senior Enoch Boakye and freshman Malcolm Thomas.

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About the Contributors

Katie Lewis, Co-Sports Editor

Katie Lewis is a junior from Miami, FL in her second year as Co-Sports Editor in 2025. From covering games to writing features and profiles, she loves to find the stories behind Villanova athletics. She is a sports desk intern with The Philadelphia Inquirer and previously interned with Main Line Today. Pursuing her enthusiasm for writing and journalism in her studies at Villanova, Katie is double-majoring in English and Communication with concentrations in Journalism and Writing & Rhetoric. When Katie isn’t at Holy Grounds working on her next article, she enjoys playing tennis with Villanova’s club team.

Erick Quezada, Photography Editor

The Photography Editor for The Villanovan, Erick Quezada is currently serving his first year at the position. Erick is a freshman majoring in Electrical Engineering and plans on minoring in Mechatronics. He is a passionate student when it comes to the internal parts of electronic components and wants to find a way of combining photography and electronic robots. Erick’s passion for photography started during the COVID pandemic where he first used his parents’ old camera to create images of mini figures and miscellaneous things laying around his house. When not talking or watching about the latest camera gear or firm updates, you can catch Erick either playing or watching sports like soccer, basketball, sometimes American football, and even baseball which he has just gotten into. Erick is a very chill person to hang around with, but if you mention Manchester United, he can talk for days about how great the team is.