As you all know by now, whether you visit this site regularly or were subject to my Twitter explosion of this past weekend, the Virginia Athletics program was met with remarkable success this weekend. The baseball team swept Maryland. The softball team swept Boston College. Our 4x800 relay team won the Championship of America title at the Penn Relays for the first time in 67 years. Oh, and did I mention the three ACC titles for rowing, men's tennis, and men's lacrosse?
These three ACC crowns mark the 100th, 101st and 102nd ACC titles in Virginia's history. Cayce Troxel has compiled a great look back at the players, coaches, and stories behind Virginia's ACC history over at VirginiaSports.com. It's definitely a good read for those of you who want to beef up your Virginia Athletics knowledge.
Here are a few things that were interesting to me:
- Wow, the 1995 ACC Co-Champions placed 28 players on an NFL roster! I know many of you probably already knew that, but with my youth comes ignorance. Those were some good times, yeah? Here's to hoping that London and company are able to right the ship and get us back not only to a level of ACC relevance, but indeed of national prominence.
- I hope Brian Boland never leaves Virginia. We've had six ACC men's tennis titles under his reign, the only six of the program. Indeed, the Cavs have a 20-1 ACC Tournament record since 2004, and we're making history as we continue our 62-game ACC winning streak.
- Debbie Ryan is truly an amazing coach. I understand that there may be some dissent among the donor ranks, but getting the top seed in the ACC Tournament for six consecutive years is no small feat. Winning back-to-back regular season and conference tournament titles is also impressive. I'm hoping that Ryan is able to somehow harness the power she had in the mid-1990s to bring our program up again. We've certainly been good in recent years, but even with Monica Wright on our team, we weren't able to put together a Final Four team. Next year, perhaps?