Cavalier Corner is the publication just for UVa sports fans!
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teams have been consistently ranked No. 1 nationally, won multiple ITA championships, ACC regular-season and tournament crowns, produced double-digit All-Americans and All-ACC performers, several conference and national freshmen and players of the year and five individual NCAA champions. In 2013, the process met its ultimate goal, a title that Jenkins calls everything he could have wanted and more. "The expressions on the faces, the relief from Coach Boland, it was more than I expected," Jenkins said. "For the 15 people inside the program that put in all the hard work this season just to know what we did as a team and reap the rewards of what we did together, on that day, in that circumstance, a couple of centimeters away from missing out on a title. It was everything we imagined and more." And the future is bright for another title run. Best Of The Rest For the fourth consecutive year, the Cavaliers had at least three players earn ITA All-America honors, and while the loss of Jenkins is certainly significant, two of this season's All Americans, rising fourth-year Alex Domijan and Styslinger, return. It gets better. In June, Virginia announced the addition of four players who will enter the program next season, including the top-ranked player in the nation, Thai-Son Kwiatkowski. TennisRecruiting.net ranks the class No. 1 in the nation. First title in hand, process in place and perspective in order, Boland said the Cavaliers are ready to move on to the next challenge. "It's not about me, it's not about one player," he said. "This program is bigger than any one person, and it takes a village for us to have this kind of success. I hope the players are ready to get back to work because we're hungry for more." ◆ 1. Cross Country — After a runner-up finish at the 2012 ACC Championships, the Cavaliers claimed the NCAA Southeast Regional crown and finished in 14th place at the NCAA Championships for the team's best showing since 2008. Although Virginia Tech topped the Cavs at the conference championship, UVa finished ahead of its in-state rivals in each of the season's final two runs. 2. Swimming and Diving — The Wahoos won their sixth straight ACC crown and 14th in the last 15 years before they went on to finish 27th at the NCAA Championships. Six athletes earned honorable mention All-America honors, led by rookie Luke Papendick in the 200-yard backstroke and second-year J.B. Kolod in the three-meter dive. 3. Wrestling — UVa logged a runner-up finish at the ACC Championships and advanced nine of a possible 10 grapplers to the NCAA Championships. The squad was buoyed by a pair of All-America finishes from Jedd Moore and Nick Sulzer, and wrapped up the year with a 21st-place showing at the NCAA Championships for the team's third top-25 finish in the past four seasons. 4. Baseball — The team finished 51-12, including a 22-8 mark against the ultra-competitive ACC, and earned the No. 6 national seed in the NCAA Tournament despite not appearing in most preseason top-25 polls. The 50 victories tied for the third-most in program history and, despite seven second-year players starting at least 47 games, the Cavs did not drop back-to-back contests all year until the Charlottesville Super Regional. 5. Soccer — The Cavs extended the nation's longest NCAA streak to 32 straight seasons after they reached the ACC semifinals, where No. 3 UNC needed penalty kicks to oust UVa. Against a very challenging schedule, the team finished 10-7-4, including a 1-0 win over Lafayette in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. — Ryan Tice