Championship Season

With a 4-0 win over Ohio State on May 21, the men’s tennis team became the latest Virginia squad to hoist a national championship trophy. It was UVA’s second NCAA crown of the sports year. Women’s swimming and diving, a veritable dynasty, won its third consecutive title in March.

UVA’s national championship total now stands at 33, with 17 coming since 2010. Of those recent titles, 12 of 17 were won in the spring, which has become championship season at UVA.

Just twice since 2010—in 2014 and in 2020, when no championships were held—has no Cavalier team won an NCAA championship in the final third of the sports calendar.

Spring also saw the men’s lacrosse team reach the NCAA Final Four, the baseball team advance to the College World Series, the men’s golf team make the NCAA quarterfinals, and the rowing team finish 10th at the NCAA championships. All that winning helped propel UVA to a fourth-place finish in the Learfield Directors’ Cup, a competition that awards points based on a school’s NCAA postseason finish in 19 sports. (UVA stood in 12th place through the winter.)

Men’s tennis got things rolling in dramatic fashion, upsetting three higher-seeded opponents en route to winning its second consecutive championship, at the United States Tennis Association National Campus in Orlando, Florida.

The Cavaliers took a similar path in 2022, knocking off two higher-ranked teams on their way to the title.

“You’re going to go through times and periods of struggles, and it’s always about bouncing back.”

“It was a bit surreal,” coach Andres Pedroso said, “like it was when we won it last year.”

Seeded No. 7 in 2022, the Cavaliers were the No. 5 seed in the tournament this year. Once again, they peaked at the optimum time, overcoming a slow start in the indoor season.

“We learned a lot from indoors and knew we needed to be better, we needed to be closer, we needed to be humble and keep working,” said Iñaki Montes (Col class of ’24), who clinched the championship with a 6-4, 6-2 singles win.

Chris Rodesch (Col class of ’24) won 6-4, 6-2. Jeffrey von der Schulenburg (Col class of ’24) prevailed 6-2, 6-1.

Rodesch was voted the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. Virginia finished the season on a 22-match winning streak.

“I think we picked the right moments, and everyone came out firing in May,” Montes said.

Other teams also came into May with high hopes. How they felt about where they finished varied according to their expectations and recent past performance.

For the men’s golf team, a close loss to Florida in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament and fifth-place national finish represented a breakthrough. The program’s previous best finish was 10th, in 2017.

“We set a high bar this year for the program and accomplished a lot of great things,” coach Bowen Sargent said.

For men’s lacrosse, the bar is a national title. The Cavaliers won in 2019 and 2021 and headed into the NCAA tournament as the No. 2 seed.

UVA reached the Final Four for the third time in the last four tournaments, setting up a showdown with No. 3 Notre Dame in Philadelphia, where the Cavaliers had won the championship in 2019.

Six players from the 2019 squad were still on the team, looking to cap their careers with a third national title in four seasons. The 2020 championship was not held due to the pandemic.

They came tantalizingly close but fell to the Fighting Irish 13-12 in overtime in the semifinals.

“We were obviously hoping for the storybook ending,” coach Lars Tiffany said.

Tiffany credited the fifth-year players for leaving the program far better than they found it. One of them, Xander Dickson (Col class of ’23), summed up the feelings of his classmates, saying they were “shocked” the season was over. Though it was far from a failure, it fell short of their expectations, he said.

“We didn’t win the national championship, and that’s the standard we created,” Dickson said. “We’re not trying to be arrogant about it, but that’s what we want, a national title. This is Virginia lacrosse, the best of the best, the blue bloods.”

The baseball team also had its eyes on the ultimate prize and headed into the College World Series swinging the hottest bats in the nation. The Cavaliers led the NCAA in team batting average, hitting .335.

UVA also had the look of a possible team of destiny. Facing elimination after falling to Duke in the first round of the Super Regional, the Cavaliers rallied to win the final two games with a combined score of 26-6 to advance to the College World Series for the sixth time since 2009.

UVA’s bats went quiet in Omaha, Nebraska, however. The Cavaliers lost by one run each to Florida and Texas Christian University. They combined for just eight runs and 13 hits in the two games. UVA had been averaging 9.1 runs and 12 hits per game.

“Baseball’s a hard game,” catcher Kyle Teel (Col class of ’24) said after the loss to TCU. “You’re going to go through times and periods of struggles, and it’s always about bouncing back. But unfortunately, we were going through that time these last couple games.”

Coach Brian O’Connor said he felt for the players, and that the loss didn’t diminish a “terrific” season.

“That said, we didn’t win. That’s our goal, to win here in Omaha and give us a chance to win a national championship.”

It’s become a familiar refrain in the spring.