Virginia finished fourth in the final 2013-14 Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup competition for Division I schools. The final results were announced Friday (June 27) by the National Association of Directors of Athletics (NACDA). The fourth-place finish is the second highest in program history and marks the eighth consecutive year the Cavaliers’ program has placed in the top 20.
Virginia is one of 14 schools to rank in the top 30 of the final Directors’ Cup standings in each year of the program’s existence.
Points in the Director’s Cup standings are awarded by a school’s finish in each sport in which it competes in NCAA postseason play. Each school may count its highest finishes in 10 men’s sports and 10 women’s sports. Click here for more information about the Directors’ Cup scoring structure.
Highlights from the year included the baseball team’s runner-up finish at the College World Series and national semifinal appearances by the women’s lacrosse, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and men’s tennis programs. The rowing team finished fifth at the NCAA championships for the second consecutive season and the women’s tennis team made its first NCAA quarterfinal appearance. In addition, the men’s basketball program advanced to its first NCAA Sweet 16 since 1995.
UVa captured five Atlantic Coast Conference championships for the second straight year and its 63 conference titles since the spring of 2002 are the most of any ACC school during that time. In 2013-14, UVa won ACC championships in men’s basketball, rowing (14th in 15 years), women’s swimming and diving (seventh consecutive), men’s tennis (eighth consecutive and 10th in the last 11 years) and women’s tennis (first in program history).
Individually, sophomore Danielle Collins (St. Petersburg, Fla.) claimed the first NCAA singles championship in women’s tennis program history and women’s soccer midfielder Morgan Brian (St. Simons Island, Ga.) earned the Hermann Trophy as national player of the year.
Steve Swanson (women’s soccer) was named National Coach of the Year and ACC Coach of the Year. Tony Bennett (men’s basketball), Augie Busch(women’s swimming and diving), Brian O’Connor (baseball) and Kevin Sauer (rowing) also earned ACC Coach of the Year honors in 2013-14.
Additional highlights of Virginia’s 2013-14 athletics year included:
– Men’s cross country finished 13th at the NCAA Championships
– Women’s cross country finished ninth at the NCAA Championships
– Four-time All-American Elly Buckley led the field hockey team to the NCAA Tournament and No. 7 rank in the final NFHCA poll
– All-American men’s golfer Denny McCarthy finished sixth at NCAA Championships, second best finish in UVa history
– Women’s golf finished 14th at the NCAA Championships
– Men’s lacrosse reached the NCAA Tournament for the 36th time in program history and the 20th time under head coach Dom Starsia
– All-Americans Liz Colgan, Morgan Stephens, Courtney Swan and Liza Blue led the women’s lacrosse team to its 14th NCAA semifinal berth and 19th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance
– Men’s soccer reached the NCAA College Cup for the 11th time and extended the nation’s longest current streak of 33 consecutive NCAA Tournament bids
– Women’s Soccer had a perfect regular season (19-0-0) and reached the NCAA College Cup for the first time since 1991
– Men’s swimming and diving placed 26th at the NCAA Championships
– Women’s swimming and diving finished 11th at the NCAA Championships, the highest finish since 2010
– Men’s tennis broke the ACC all-sport consecutive conference win record, with an active streak of 122 matches (regular season and postseason), breaking the previous record of 116 wins by Duke women’s tennis from 1989-2000
– Women’s tennis captured its first ACC regular season and tournament championships en route to a school-best 24-6 record
– Wrestling took 23rd place with 18.5 points at the NCAA Championships.
– Virginia’s Jon Fausey (wrestling), Molly Menchel (women’s soccer), Kate Norbo (women’s soccer) and Thomas Porter (men’s cross country/track & field) earned Weaver-James-Corrigan postgraduate scholarships from the ACC.
Academics
Virginia student-athletes registered an outstanding academic performance during the Spring 2014 semester. The overall GPA for UVa’s 627 student-athletes in Spring 2014 was 3.0 for the second consecutive semester. This tied for the highest overall GPA recorded for Virginia student-athletes in the last decade. A total of 79 percent of UVa’s student-athletes earned a GPA of 2.5 or better with 50 percent recording a mark of 3.0 or better.
A total of nine student-athletes earned a perfect 4.0 grade point average during the semester.
A total of 17 of UVa’s 22 athletics programs earned a GPA of 3.0 or better during the semester.
The women’s swimming and diving team recorded the highest GPA (3.37) among women’s programs and the men’s cross country team recorded the highest GPA (3.27) to lead men’s programs.
There were 15 teams that improved their team GPA from Spring of 2013 to Spring of 2014. That group included the sport programs of baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s cross coun¬try, women’s cross country, men’s golf, men’s lacrosse, women’s lacrosse, softball, men’s swimming and diving, women’s swimming and diving, men’s track and field, women’s track and field, volleyball and wrestling.
Eight Cavalier athletic programs recorded their highest cumulative GPA in the last 10 years. That group features the men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s cross country, men’s golf, softball, men’s track and field, women’s track and field and women’s swimming and diving teams.
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