The Best Virginia Cavaliers Sports Teams of 2021

With the clock running out in 2021 and a new year approaching, it’s time to look back on another successful year for athletics at the University of Virginia. Today we’re making our pick of the top five Virginia Cavaliers sports teams of 2021 (in no particular order).

Swimming & diving for women

Florida, Stanford, Texas, USC, Georgia, Auburn, California, Arizona. This is the list of schools that won an NCAA national swimming and diving championship for women prior to this year. Only eight programs had ever won a national title and none of them came from the ACC. That was until the UVA women’s swim and dive team traveled to Greensboro in March 2021 and won the program’s first national championship. The Cavaliers defeated the competition and scored 491 points as a team, almost 150 points more than the runner-up NC State with 354 points.

Paige Madden led the way, winning three singles titles: 200-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle, and 1,650-yard freestyle. She also took part in UVA’s 800-yard freestyle relay, which also took first place. When Todd DeSorbo first came to UVA in 2017, he said he had a “five-year plan” to promote the Cavaliers to the NCAA championships by 2022. Well, it was a four year plan and the Hoos have more than one championship battle, bringing an NCAA Swimming & Diving National Championship to Charlottesville for the first time.

Men’s lacrosse

Although the Virginia men’s lacrosse team entered the season as reigning champions, it was not a favorite to win the national title. The Cavaliers finished the regular season 10-4 and received number 4 in the NCAA tournament. After dispatching Bryant in the first round, many “experts” picked # 5 Georgetown to defeat UVA in the quarterfinals. Instead, the Hoos dominated the Hoyas from start to finish, winning 14-3 behind a six-goal performance by Redshirt newcomer Connor Shellenberger. In the Final Four, Virginia was once again considered an outsider among the other contenders: No. 3 Maryland, No. 2 Duke and No. 1 North Carolina. In the semifinals against the Tar Heels, UVA built a 12-8 lead on the way to the fourth quarter. The Cavaliers wouldn’t score again, but the Virginia defense held out and took a critical stand in the last minute to send the Hoos into the final with a 12:11 win.

In the National Championship Game against the number 3 and the unbeaten Maryland, Virginia scored four goals and two assists each from Matt Moore and Connor Shellenberger, who was named the most outstanding player of the NCAA tournament. In a thrilling end to a fantastic game, goalkeeper Alex Rode parried a last-minute win in Maryland and the Cavaliers beat the Terrapins 17:16 to claim back-to-back national championships and the seventh NCAA championship in program history.

Rowing for women

The Virginia women’s rowing continued its dominant run in the ACC, winning all five grand finals to win the 2021 ACC Rowing Championship. The Cavaliers have now won a total of 11 consecutive ACC rowing championships and 20 ACC titles. Virginia’s Varsity Eight was named ACC Crew of the Year and Virginia’s head coach Kevin Sauer was named ACC Trainer of the Year. UVA advanced three boats to the final of the NCAA Championship, where the Cavaliers finished fifth, the program’s 17th top-five result at the NCAA Championships.

baseball

After a rocky start to the season, Virginia rallied on the track, won four ACC series in a row to end the regular season, and received an application for the NCAA tournament. UVA’s time in the tournament seemed short-lived after the Cavaliers lost their first game in the Columbia Regional to South Carolina and the Cavaliers left one defeat to the point. UVA beat Jacksonville 8-13 and South Carolina 3-2 to stay alive. No. 15 Old Dominion only had to win one of two games against Virginia to knock out the Hoos. UVA defeated ODU 8-3 to force a crucial elimination game. Devin Ortiz set up the first four innings and finally reached a walk-off home run in the 10th inning to give the Hoos a 4-3 victory and advance Virginia to the Super Regionals.

Virginia dropped the Super Regional’s first game against Dallas Baptist and the Hoos were once again about to be eliminated. Griff McGarry threw seven scoreless innings and UVA scored four runs in the eighth inning to win game two 4-0 and force a winner-take-all final. After 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, newcomer Kyle Teel sent a ball over the midfield wall for a Grand Slam. UVA won 5-2 and Virginia advanced to the College World Series for the first time since 2015 and for the fifth time in program history. Virginia beat Tennessee 6-0 in the CWS’s first game, but the Cavaliers lost consecutive games against Mississippi State and Texas to end their run in Omaha and a very successful 2021 UVA baseball season.

Women’s football (spring and autumn)

Due to COVID-19, the postseason for the 2020 women’s soccer season has been postponed to last spring. The 2020 UVA women’s soccer team had an amazing run to the College Cup as an unset team. Virginia defeated SIUE 3-1, BYU 2-0, Rice 3-0 and No. 4 TCU 1-0 to reach the NCAA semi-finals for the first time since 2014. In the College Cup semifinals against top-seeded Florida State, the Hoos played the Seminoles to a 0-0 draw through regulation and overtime. UVA eventually fell on penalties against FSU, ending an unexpected postseason run for the Hoos.

With much of the core of the 2020 College Cup roster returning to Charlottesville for another season this fall, Virginia was expected to be one of the best teams in the country. The Cavaliers definitely met these expectations. Behind ACC Offensive Player of the Year Diana Ordonez, UVA reached 15-1-2 in the regular season, including an unbeaten 8-0-2 conference record, and won the program’s third ACC Regular Season Championship and the first since 2015.

As the top seed in the ACC tournament, Virginia defeated Clemson 1-0 to advance to the ACC championship game, where the Cavaliers lost 1-0 to Florida State. UVA was a No. 1 in the NCAA tournament, beating High Point 6-0 and Milwaukee 2-0 to advance to the round of 16 UVA 1-0.

Men’s basketball

It’s been a season of ups and downs for the 2020-2021 Virginia men’s basketball team. Several games have been canceled due to COVID-19 and it appeared that the breaks were a significant obstacle preventing the Hoos from getting into a rhythm, especially considering there were several new faces on the team. Even so, Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers won 18-7 and 13-4 in the ACC game, winning the program’s 11th ACC Regular Season Championship and the fifth since 2014.

In the ACC tournament, Syracuse had the top seeded wahoos on the ropes until Reece Beekman hit a clutch buzzer that gave Virginia a 72-69 win.

Unfortunately, UVA was hit by another COVID-19 case in the program at the worst possible time. The Cavaliers had to give up the ACC tournament and watch their next opponent, Georgia Tech, win the ACC tournament championship in 2021. Virginia couldn’t practice together for the next week and a half as the team filled out COVID-19 logs and the team was barely cleared in time to travel to Indiana for the NCAA tournament. No. 4 seeded, UVA then fell in the first round to No. 13 seeded Ohio 62-58 in a very disappointing end of the season. It’s hard not to think about what the Cavaliers could have achieved in the ACC and NCAA tournaments if the team hadn’t experienced the COVID hiatus.

Sam Hauser, Jay Huff and Kihei Clark have all been named to All-ACC teams, and Virginia’s three top scorers from that team, Sam Hauser, Trey Murphy and Jay Huff, are currently on the NBA roster.

Happy New Year!

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