University of Virginia - Athletics

Athletics

The University of Virginia's athletics program competes in Division I (and the Football Bowl Subdivision for football), and has been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference since 1953. The current Athletic Director at Virginia is Craig Littlepage. The Virginia Cavaliers, also called "Wahoos" or "Hoos", have won 21 recognized national championships, 16 of them since 1980. Virginia has won multiple national titles in six different sports, including three men's sports (lacrosse, 7; soccer, 6; and boxing, 2) and three women's sports (lacrosse, 3; rowing, 2; and cross country, 2). It also holds a national championship in track and field. The men's college basketball team has won either the ACC regular season (1981, 1982, 1983, 1995, 2007) or ACC Tournament (1976) titles six times and has been to the Final Four twice, while the women's squad has been three times.

The football team won a share of the ACC Championship in both 1989 and 1995 (both before the conference had a championship game). After never reaching a bowl before 1984, the team has played in 17 bowl games since. The program is also notable for its recent high draft picks in the National Football League, including the #4 overall pick of 2006, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, and the #2 overall pick of 2008, Chris Long. The program is a party to three major rivalry games in the conference: the longest series in the ACC, the South's Oldest Rivalry with North Carolina; the Commonwealth Cup with Virginia Tech (part of the greater Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry); and the Beltway Brawl with Maryland. While the Cavaliers have played UNC more times (114) than any other rival, all of these opponents – North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and Maryland – each list Virginia as their schools' longest-standing football rivals.

In 2006, the men's lacrosse team won its fourth NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship, and sixth including the pre-tournament era. In the title game, Virginia defeated UMass 15-7 in front of a record crowd of 47,062 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, the first lacrosse crowd to surpass the crowd size of the men's basketball Final Four and the largest crowd to witness any NCAA Championship during the year. The team finished the season a perfect 17–0, the best record in NCAA lacrosse history. Five years later the Cavaliers won the 2011 championship behind eventual Tewaaraton Trophy winner Steele Stanwick, bringing their tournament era championship total to 5, which puts them fourth amongst NCAA Division I teams and first amongst ACC Teams.

The new John Paul Jones Arena opened in the fall of 2006 for men's and women's basketball. It seats 14,593 fans, making it the third largest on-campus basketball facility in the ACC and the largest arena not located in a major metropolitan area. The arena's inaugural year witnessed the Virginia men's basketball team's first place finish in the ACC.

Davenport Field, where the UVa baseball team plays, is also new, opening in 2002. In Brian O'Connor's first 4 seasons at the helm after being made the head baseball coach in July 2003, the team has averaged 44 wins per year and become a nationally-ranked power. The team has led the ACC in team ERA for 4 consecutive years. In 2009, the baseball team won a place in the College World Series for the first time.

The soccer teams are also national powers, with men's soccer having won 6 national championships to date including its most recent in December 2009. The women's team is regularly ranked in the top 10 nationally. The teams play their home matches at Klöckner Stadium, the largest soccer stadium in the ACC. The men's team has been invited to the NCAA Tournament for 26 consecutive years and made the College Cup many times. Former Coach Bruce Arena has coached the US national team and currently coaches the Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer.

The Aquatics and Fitness Center (webcam) has been popular among University students for working out and swimming since its opening in Fall 1996, and it is also where the Swimming & Diving teams compete in home meets. The men's swimming and diving team won 8 consecutive ACC Championships between 1999 and 2006. The women's swimming team won its fourth consecutive ACC Championship on February 19, 2011.

Also winning consecutive ACC titles has been the men's tennis team, which has won 4 consecutive regular season ACC Championships. Playing their home matches at the Sheridan Snyder Tennis Center, the men's tennis team had their best season ever in 2007, finishing with a 30-4 record and a #2 national ranking. Somdev Devvarman became the first ACC player in conference history to win the NCAA Singles Championship, which he won in two consecutive years. In addition, the tennis team beat Ohio State for the 2008 National Indoor Tennis Championships, 4-1.

Now that Virginia Tech has joined the ACC, the Virginia-Virginia Tech rivalry has been strengthened across a number of sports. This rivalry between the University and its larger neighbor to the southwest is followed statewide. UVA's athletic teams have bested the Hokies through the years in many of the major sports. The two universities also faced off in the Commonwealth Challenge between 2005 and 2007, with the Cavaliers routing the Hokies in each Challenge: 14.5 to 7.5 in 2005-2006 and 14 to 8 in 2006-2007. The competition was then dropped out of sensitivity following the Virginia Tech massacre.