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10 CAVALIER CORNER cavalier sports Photo courtesy UVA HOO'S ON SOCIAL MEDIA 1st 1st NCAA doubles national championship in program histor y was won by Vir- ginia women's tennis fourth-years ELAINE CHERVINSKY (left) and MÉLODIE COLLARD Nov. 24 in Waco, Texas. In the first year that the NCAA Singles and Doubles Champi- onships were contested in the fall in- stead of after the team championship in the spring, the UVA tandem won all five of its NCAA matches in third-set 10-point super tiebreakers. The doubles crown for Chervinsky and Collard is the fourth individual title in program history, alongside NCAA sin- gles titles from Danielle Collins (2014 and 2016) and Emma Navarro (2021). It is the 88th individual NCAA title for UVA across all sports. No. 1 Recruit in the class of 2024, Katie Grimes, signed with the University of Virginia women's swimming and diving program in October. The Las Vegas native is set to join the team in January 2025. Grimes — who posted top times for the class of 2024 in six different events (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle, 1,000 freestyle, 1,650 freestyle, 200 butterfly and 400 individual medley) — was the youngest member of the 2020 US Olym- pic Team, placing fourth in the 800 freestyle at 15 years old. After winning the 400 individual medley at the U.S. Olympic Trials this past June, she earned a silver medal at the Paris Olympics while also competing in the 1,500 freestyle (10th place). She was the first American woman to compete in both pool and open water swimming at the same Olympic games, swimming in the 10-kilometer race in the Seine River (15th place). She is a three-time na- tional champion in the 10-kilometer open water race and a bronze medalist at the 2023 World Championships. 2 Cross country All-Amer- icans for the Cavaliers: fourth-year Margot Appleton for the women and third- year Gary Martin for the men. Appleton finished the 6K women's race in 19:51.0 to place 18th for her first career All-America acco- lades in cross country, while the UVA women logged a 14th-place team finish. Martin crossed the fin- ish line 13th with a personal-best time of 29:02.3 in the 10K men's race, and the Cavaliers posted a 21st-place showing as a team. Mar- tin is the first Virginia man to earn All-America honors in cross country since Brent Demarest in 2018. 10 Different players re- corded game-winning goals for the Virginia men's soccer team during the 2024 sea- son. Second-year forward AJ Smith was the last do so, tallying his first career game- winner in UVA's come-from-behind 2-1 win over West Virginia in the second round of the NCAA Tournament Nov. 24 in Charlot- tesville. 1985 Was the last regular-season meeting on the gridiron between the Virginia and West Virginia football programs, but that will change in the near future with a pair of neutral-site match- ups in 2026 and 2032 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. The first meeting will take place on Sept. 19, 2026, followed by a Sept. 24 showdown in 2032. The two programs last met in the 2002 Con- tinental Tire Bowl, when the Cavaliers defeated the Mountaineers 48-22 to take a 12-10-1 lead in the all-time series. 7 Different former Cavaliers have been on a team that has won a World Series title. Utility man Chris Taylor (2010-12) captured his second championship in five years with the Los An- geles Dodgers in 2024, making him one of only two Cavaliers with multiple World Series rings. Javier López won his first with the 2007 Boston Red Sox before winning three with the San Francisco Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014.