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OCTOBER 2022 11 ginia's first female national individual cham- pion, winning the indoor track and field 5,000 meters at the AIWA Championships. 1982 — Cross country athlete Lesley Welch was Virginia's first women's individual NCAA champion. 1982 — The UVA women's cross country team became the first program in Virginia sports history to win back-to-back NCAA team titles. 1983 — Welch was Virginia's first female National Player of the Year, winning the pres- tigious Honda Award for cross country. 1983 — Women's basketball player Ann Bair was Virginia's first female ACC Scholar- Athlete of the Year. 1984 — Women's basketball head coach Debbie Ryan became Virginia's first female ACC Coach of the Year. 1985-89 — Susie Williams earned seven varsity letters between field hockey (four) and women's lacrosse (three), the most earned by a female student-athlete at Vir- ginia. She was a captain of the field hockey team and a two-time (1989, 1991) member of the U.S. women's lacrosse national team. 1987 — Marianne Downey, Sandy Schuler, Phyllis Buber and Shelly McBride were the first female student-athletes to set a world record, running the 4x1500 meter relay in 16:14:47. 1988 — Women's basketball player Donna Holt became the first female Vir- ginia student-athlete to win ACC Player of the Year. 1988 — The Virginia softball program set the record for the longest winning streak for a women's sport at the University, winning 25 games in a row (March 19-April 17). 1989 — Women's basketball player Dawn Staley became the first female Virginia student-athlete to win ACC Fresh- man of the Year. 1990 — Women's soccer became Virginia's first women's sport to earn an in-season No. 1 national ranking. 1991 — Ryan became Virginia's first female National Coach of the Year after leading the Cavaliers to a 31-3 overall record, an undefeated 14-0 conference record and a run to the Final Four. 1991 — Staley became the first Virginia student-athlete to win the ACC Female Ath- lete of the Year Award and was the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Final Four. 1991-92 — Staley won the Honda Cup Award as the nation's top woman athlete in 1991. She was also named back-to-back Na- ismith College Player of the Year, WBCA Player of the Year and USBWA Player of the Year. 1995 — Women's soccer alum Amanda Cromwell became the first female Virginia athlete to compete in a World Cup. 1996 — Melanie Valerio (4x100 relay) and Staley became the first two Virginia athletes to win Olympic gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. 1996 — Former Virginia women's basketball player Val Ackerman, the program's first-ever 1,000-point scorer, was named the first Presi- dent of the WNBA. She was the first woman to successfully launch and operate a women's sports league. She served as the league's president for eight years, being named to the Sports Business Journal's 2005 "20 Most In- fluential Women in the Sports Business" list. 1996 – The Virginia Department of Athlet- ics and the UVA Women's Center hosted its first National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration. They honored Cromwell (soccer), Cathy Grimes-Miller (bas- ketball), Margaret Sloan (track and field), Cheryl Gleason (field hockey), Lisa Palmer (softball), Karen Burgess Williamson (swimming), Deborah Tyson (volleyball), Kara Nuss (rowing), Dr. Mary Slaughter (tennis), Dr. Sue Shapiro (trainer) and Heather Dow (field hockey and lacrosse). The event is still celebrated every year in January or February. 1997 — Tammi Reiss was the first Virginia female athlete to be selected in the first round of a professional draft, being picked fifth over- all in the WNBA Draft by the Utah Starzz. EXTRAORDINARY ACHIEVEMENTS The women's sports programs at Vir- ginia have enjoyed extraordinary success since the inclusion of women's sports at the University in 1973. Among the most notable accomplishments are these ac- colades: 9 NCAA team championships 35 NCAA individual champions 64 ACC team championships 483 ACC individual champions 891 All-American selections 24 Hall of Fame inductions 31 Olympians 23 ACC Coaches of the Year 7 National Coaches of the Year 63 ACC Players of the Year selections 44 ACC Freshman of the Year 796 ACC All-Academic selections Lauren Perdue was named ACC Swimmer of the Year three times — 2010, 2011 and 2013. (Photo by Matt Riley/courtesy UVA) Barbara Kelly became the first head coach of the women's basketball program at UVA in 1973. (Photo courtesy UVA)