Finally Official: Joanne Boyle is UVA's Fourth Women's Basketball Head Coach

Everyone except for the Cal SID knew it to be true, but word has finally come from the Virginia Athletics department that former Cal head coach Joanne Boyle has been named the fourth women's basketball head coach at the University of Virginia, following Debbie Ryan's 34-year tenure.

Here was our write-up on Boyle from a couple of days ago. To keep it short, Boyle took a Cal program that had gone 12 years without a winning season to a postseason appearance in her first year there. A year later, she took Cal to their then-record high ranking of No. 15 in the AP poll. The next year, she took Cal to their first Pac-10 Championship game. The successes just kept rolling, as a year later, the Golden Bears were ranked No. 3 in the land for four weeks. Last year, they won the WNIT Championship.

A press conference will be held Monday at noon to introduce the new coach, and will be streamed live on VirginiaSports.com. The press release follows the jump.

Joanne Boyle, the women's head basketball coach at the University of California at Berkeley for the last six years, is the new women's head basketball coach at the University of Virginia, UVa Athletics Director Craig Littlepage announced today. Boyle becomes the fourth head coach in the 38-year history of the Virginia women's basketball program.

Boyle comes to Virginia after compiling a 137-64 (.682) record with the Golden Bears. She led California to post season play each year she directed the program, including four NCAA tournament appearances and two trips to the Women's National Invitation Tournament. The Golden Bears won the 2010 WNIT championship.

Boyle began her head coaching career at the University of Richmond in 2002. In three years she led the Spiders to a 67-29 (.698) record, winning at least 21 games each season. Her final year at Richmond the Spiders went 23-8 and advance to the NCAA Championships. Boyle's nine-year head coaching record is 204-93 (.687). She has taken her teams to post season play all nine years during her career.

When Boyle took over as the California head coach in 2005 she inherited a program that had gone 12 consecutive seasons without a winning record.

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Boyle is highly regarding in the women's basketball community. She is a member of the State Farm/Wade Trophy selection committee and the USA Basketball Junior National Team Committee (2009-2012). In 2006 she was an assistant coach for the USA team that competed in the 2006 FIBA Americas U20 Championship for Women and a member of the WBCA Board of Directors.

Boyle served as an assistant coach at Duke from 1993 to 2002. During that nine-year span the Blue Devils recorded a 225-121 record, advancing to the NCAA Championships the last eight seasons and making Final Four appearances in 1999 and 2002.

A four-year letterwinner at Duke, Boyle graduated in 1985 with a degree in economics and obtained a master's of science degree in health policy and administration from North Carolina in 1989. She ended her playing career ranked second at Duke in both scoring and in assists. Her 75 steals during the 1984-85 campaign remained the highest single-season total until Alana Beard broke the mark in 2000-01. Prior to starting her coaching career at her alma mater she played professionally in Luxembourg and Germany for three years.

A press conference to formally introduce Boyle will be held Monday at noon in the dining hall at John Paul Jones Arena. The press conference will be streamed live on VirginiaSports.com.