‘Hoos men’s tennis ranks up there with the great collegiate dynasties

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Note: Long time, no see. So my wife, Mira, and I had a baby boy, Antoni, February 21! I took some much-needed time off from the blog to learn the ropes of being a daddy. Not sure at what capacity the blog will return, but I at least came off hiatus to write about the UVa men's tennis team's fifth national championship. Enjoy!


The Virginia men's tennis team celebrates winning the national championship. Coach Andres Pedroso is at bottom. (Screenshot of Virginia Sports highlights)

The Virginia men’s tennis team won its fifth national championship in nine years May 22, defeating No. 8 seed Kentucky 4-0 in Champaign, Illinois. The Cavaliers, the No. 7 seed, finished the season 28-5, winning their last 23 matches. Remarkably, they dropped just one point in the entire NCAA tournament, when they defeated No. 2 seed Florida 4-1 in the quarterfinals.

UVa’s five losses all came consecutively in February, perhaps a rarity for most any collegiate championship-winning team. One of those setbacks came versus Florida, so the Cavaliers avenged that defeat. Also, Virginia’s victory over Kentucky was its second in 2022. They also topped the Wildcats 4-2 on March 31.

It was Virginia athletics’ 31st team title. The Wahoos also picked up No. 30 this academic year when women’s swimming won its second consecutive championship in March.

In the title match, in doubles, the team of Ryan Goetz and Inaki Montes took down Gabriel Diallo and Joshua Lapadat and Gianni Ross and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg beat UK’s Liam Draxl and Alexandre LeBlanc 6-1. In singles, Bar Botzer defeated JJ Mercer 6-1, 6-1. Montes took down Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 6-2. And Ross, a fifth-year senior, fittingly clinched the crown for the Cavaliers by edging Lapadat 6-4, 6-4.

This was the first championship for fifth-year coach Andres Pedroso, who took over the program in 2017 (his first season was in spring 2018) after the departure of Brian Boland. Pedroso was associate head coach in 2013, when the Wahoos won their first crown. In 2014, Pedroso left to become a private coach before returning to Charlottesville.

Virginia’s other titles came in three consecutive years, 2015-17. It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing once Pedroso took over. UVa still made the NCAA tournament in 2018, but it won just one match in the bracket and finished 14-13. The team improved each season since: In 2019, it went 24-5 with a loss in the quarterfinals to Wake Forest. In 2020 of course, no tournament was held, which is why I am counting the squad’s dynasty as taking place over nine years rather than 10: One season didn’t count. And last year, Virginia finished 23-3, bowing out to USC in the round of 16.

It’s tough to win a championship in any sport, much less five in nine years. Sure, it can be easier to dominate sports that don’t have as much parity, such as men’s tennis, but still, it’s a very impressive feat. That got me thinking: How does the Virginia men’s tennis program’s run over the past decade compare with other college sports dynasties?

I had to set some parameters for this article or else we’d be here all day looking at every program that won two titles in a row or perhaps even three in four years. They are rough parameters, so don’t read into them too much. First, I only counted NCAA titles. Two of these programs (North Carolina women’s soccer and Minnesota women’s ice hockey) won a title each outside of NCAA competition the year before beginning NCAA play. Second, I tried to pick programs that won at least four titles over *relatively* short periods, though you’ll see “short” doesn’t always mean 10 years or less. Indeed, in some cases, it is difficult to pinpoint just 10 years for a particular dynasty. Sometimes, it is more like a generation of success. I also tried to keep this list relatively modern, so post-World War II. Hopefully nothing obvious got left out. I’ll start out with a couple of UVa entrants and then work through the more well-known dynasties before finishing up with a few obscure ones.

Virginia men’s soccer

Titles: Five in six years (1989, 1991-94)
Coach: Bruce Arena, who went on to fame with the U.S. National Team.
Notable: There’s an asterisk next to Arena’s first title: Virginia and Santa Clara played to a 1-1 tie, before there were shootouts in the NCAA final, and both were declared co-champions. But in 1991, the Cavaliers and Broncos again met in the final. Again, they were tied, 0-0, after four overtimes, but this time in a shootout, UVa won 3-1 on penalty kicks. The men’s soccer ‘Hoos have of course kept up their stellar play over many years and also won NCAA titles in 2009 and 2014. But the past two seasons, they’ve posted losing records.

Virginia men’s lacrosse

Titles: Four in 13 years (1999, 2003, 2006, 2011)
Coach: Dom Starsia
Notable: The 2006 team went 17-0. I think there’s was enough time and enough down years to separate what Starsia’s Cavaliers did and what Lars Tiffany has done now with the program. Starsia’s career ended after the 2016 season when Virginia finished 7-8 , the second of two losing records Starsia had in his final four years that sandwiched two quick NCAA tournament exits in 2014 and 2015. Tiffany’s ‘Hoos won the 2019 and 2021 titles (back to back, with no tournament in 2020), meaning the UVa men’s lacrosse program has a chance to build another dynasty and land on a future iteration of this list.

UCLA men’s basketball

Titles: 10 in 12 years (1964-65, 1967-73, 1975)
Coach: John Wooden
Notable: Probably the gold standard for collegiate dynasties, at least in the major sports, Wooden’s run included an 88-game winning streak covering two full seasons (1971-72 and 1972-73) and part of a third (1973-74), which still has not been topped in men’s basketball, though on the women’s side, it was later beaten by another entrant on this list. Wooden had four perfect 30-0 seasons.

Alabama football

Titles: Six in 19 years (1961, 1964-65, 1973, 1978-79) and six in 12 years (2009, 2011-12, 2015, 2017, 2020)
Coaches: Paul “Bear” Bryant and Nick Saban
Notable: Bryant had two perfect championship seasons, 1961 and 1978, and a third perfect year in 1966 when, because of college football’s wacky system, Bryant’s Tide finished ranked No. 3 in the nation. Saban also has two perfect championship seasons, 2009 and 2020. Unless he retires soon — certainly possible since is 70 — it seems as if he will pass Bryant in number of titles at Alabama.

Connecticut women’s basketball

Titles: 11 in 22 years (1995, 2000, 2002-04, 2009-10, 2013-16)
Coach: Geno Auriemma
Notable: Auriemma, a former UVa assistant under Debbie Ryan, may not have dominated one decade as much as Wooden, but he has more titles (11 to 10) and more perfect seasons (six to four). While Auriemma had a bit of a monopoly on talent for a while, you have to admit it is impressive that he won consecutive titles three different times, meaning some of the competition caught up with him twice, and he was able to find a way to get back on top. But now with more talent dispersed among a few more programs — and the rise of coaches such as UVa’s own Dawn Staley at South Carolina — he’s found the going a bit tougher recently. Does he have another run in him with the Huskies?

Tennessee women’s basketball

Titles: Eight in 22 years (1987, 1989, 1991, 1996-98, 2007-08)
Coach: Pat Summitt
Notable: No doubt, this was one of the teams that ended up pushing UConn to greatness, and I’m sure the Huskies fueled later Volunteer titles as well. In a sport somewhat bereft of intense rivalries and intriguing matchups year in and year out, it’s hard to deny Tennessee vs. UConn women’s basketball, Summitt vs. Auriemma, was one of the most heated rivalries in sports in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Summitt had one perfect season, in 1997-98. Auriemma held the edge in head-to-head title games over Summitt, 4-0. Tennessee did beat UConn one year in the national semifinal. The Vols defeated the Staley-led ‘Hoos in the 1991 title game.

Miami football

Titles: Four in nine years (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991)
Coaches: Howard Schellenberger (’83), Jimmy Johnson (’87), and Dennis Erickson (’89 and ’91)
Notable: The most controversial dynasty on this list, the Hurricanes of the 1980s and early 1990s preened and pranced their way to four titles under three different head coaches but also got into plenty of trouble with the NCAA. Miami’s football program spawned numerous NFL careers and ultimately, the bad boys of college football got their own ESPN “30 for 30” documentary as well.

USC baseball

Titles: 10 in 21 years (1958, 1961, 1963, 1968, 1970-74, 1978)
Coach: Rod Dedeaux
Notable: Dedeaux oversaw all but one of the Trojans’ record 12 College World Series titles. For one in 1948, he was co-coach with Sam Barry, and the Trojans’ most recent came in 1998. Dedeaux helped churn out MLB players such as Tom Seaver, Mark McGwire, and Randy Johnson. His run of five consecutive CWS titles is unprecedented, with no other program winning more than two in a row.

North Carolina women’s soccer

Titles: 21 in 31 years (1982-84, 1986-94, 1996-97, 1999-00, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2012)
Coach: Anson Dorrance
Notable: I’m not going to pretend to be a women’s soccer expert. Obviously the competition wasn’t as stiff for the Tar Heels as it was for others on this list. Nevertheless, they had quite the amazing run and helped produce numerous U.S. women’s national soccer team players, with the most notable being Mia Hamm. North Carolina’s most frequent finals victim was Notre Dame, which the Tar Heels beat five times.

Oklahoma softball

Titles: Five in nine years (2013, 2016-17, 2021-22)
Coach: Patty Gasso
Notable: The most recent entrant on this list cannot be denied a spot. The Sooners softball program is among the most dominant in college sports at the moment. They easily defeated rival Texas in two straight games in the Women’s College World Series finals to complete back-to-back tournament-winning seasons. This year, OU went an incredible 59-3. Oklahoma also won consecutive titles in 2016-17. Like UVa men’s tennis, the Sooners’ dynasty numerically looks even better given that 2020 was the canceled season.

Iowa wrestling

Titles: 20 in 26 years (1975-76, 1978-86, 1991-93, 1995-00)
Coaches: Gary Kurdelmeier (1975-76), Dan Gable (1978-86, 1991-93, 1995-97), Jim Zalesky (1998-00)
Notable: The Hawkeyes have the only other dynasty on this list other than UNC women’s soccer that can boast nine consecutive national titles. Though the train has slowed some, Iowa is still really good at wrestling, having won four titles this century.

Minnesota women’s hockey

Titles: Six in 16 years (2004-05, 2012-13, 2015-16)
Coaches: Laura Halldorson (2004-05) and Brad Frost (2012-13, 2015-16)
Notable: Since their most recent title in 2016, the Golden Gophers have been back to the Frozen Four twice, in 2017 and 2019, but have not reached the title game again yet.

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