CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – 2025 in Virginia athletics saw the Cavaliers add another national championship to its impressive trophy case, courtesy of its women’s swimming dynasty. 

It also witnessed a resurgence for the football program and the beginning of a possible rebirth of its men’s basketball team.

Some of the biggest news of the year at Virginia came in financial terms, as the athletic department and its teams received multiple million-dollar donations aimed at making the Cavaliers competitive in the NIL era. 

On the fields and courts, UVA mostly helped up enthusiasm surrounding the athletic program.

Men’s tennis reached the quarterfinals of the NCAAs, while the women reached the Round of 16.

Men’s and women’s soccer both competed in the NCAA tournament, as did field hockey, among others.

Lars Tiffany and the men’s lacrosse program missed the NCAAs, posting its first losing record since 2016, but the women’s team reached the second round of the tournament, competing in the postseason for the 29th consecutive time. 

Both of those teams, painfully, had their seasons ended by rival Duke. 

These were the biggest stories of the year in UVA athletics.

  

5) Navarro and Collins excel in England

A pair of former UVA women’s tennis greats, Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro, had Cavalier fans captivated by Wimbledon this year. 

Collins, a two-time NCAA singles champion at Virginia in 2014 and 2016, had initially planned to retire after 2024 but reversed course.

She reached the Round of 32 at the All-England Club, defeating Camila Osorio and Viktoria Erjavec before falling to the world’s No. 1-ranked player, Iga Swiatek, on Centre Court. 

Collins also reached the Round of 32 at the Australian Open and ended the year ranked No. 64 in the world. 

If Collins is on the back end of her career, Navarro is on the way up. The 2021 NCAA singles champion at UVA reached the Round of 16 at Wimbledon, the Round of 32 at the U.S. Open and ended the year ranked No. 15 in the world.

4) O’Connor bolts for the SEC

Longtime UVA baseball coach Brian O’Connor, who led the Cavaliers to seven College World Series appearances and the 2015 national championship, left Virginia after 22 seasons to take over as the coach at Mississippi State. 

O’Connor, a 54-year-old Iowa native and 1993 Creighton graduate, took over the UVA program in 2004 and helped transform the Cavaliers into a national powerhouse. Virginia reached the NCAA tournament in each of O’Connor’s first 12 seasons at the helm, reaching Omaha in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2015, when it won the championship.  

After a three-year absence – one that included the canceled 2020 season — O’Connor had UVA back in the postseason in 2021 and back in Omaha at the World Series in 2023 and 2024.  

This past season, the Cavaliers – after opening as the No. 2 ranked team in the nation – missed the NCAAs, finishing 32-17. In March, a 9-8 home win over Stanford gave O’Connor the 900th victory of his coaching career. 

Virginia hired Duke coach Chris Pollard to replace O’Connor.

3) Women’s swimming wins fifth straight national title

UVA women’s swimming continued its run of domination over the sport, capturing a fifth straight NCAA national championship in March in Federal Way, Wash. Led by Gretchen Walsh and Claire Curzan, the Cavaliers raced away from the field, beating second-place finisher Stanford by 127 points to become the third team ever to win five straight crowns.

Six Cavaliers won individual events and the team claimed four of the five relays at the
championship, setting six NCAA and American records.
Walsh won seven gold medals and Curzan won five.
Sisters Alex and Gretchen Walsh closed their collegiate careers with nine individual event NCAA titles each, tied for fourth most ever. Only seven women in NCAA history have ever won nine or more individual titles.

2) Ryan Odom takes over UVA basketball

After a tumultuous 2024-25 season, one that saw Tony Bennett retire as Virginia’s men’s basketball coach just before the start of the campaign and interim coach Ron Sanchez fired just hours after it ended in an ACC tournament loss to Georgia Tech. 

The Cavaliers, who have not won an NCAA Tournament game since winning the 2019 national championship under Bennett, turned to a familiar face to steady and rejuvenate the program.

Ryan Odom, who spent part of his childhood around UVA when his father was an assistant coach under Terry Holland, and who coached UMBC to the stunning 16-over-a-1-seed upset over Virginia in 2018, was hired on March 22.

Odom, who spent the past two seasons at VCU, has taken all three Division I schools he’s coached at – UMBC, Utah State and VCU – to NCAA Tournaments. 

1) Virginia football wins program record 11 games, Gator Bowl 

With his team picked to finish 14th in the 17-team ACC, Tony Elliott entered his fourth season at UVA very much on the coaching hot seat. Virginia invested heavily in the offseason in a roster chock full of transfer portal additions, including quarterback Chandler Morris, running back J’Mari Taylor, center Brady Wilson, defensive ends Mitchell Melton and Fisher Camac and safety Devin Neal.

Behind a record-setting offense in the early part of the season, a stout defense down the stretch and a knack for pulling out close games – including a thrilling double-overtime upset of then-No. 8 Florida State at Scott Stadium on Sept. 26 – the Cavaliers won the ACC regular-season title and came within an overtime loss to Duke in the conference title game of reaching the College Football Playoff.

That run also included dominating rival Virginia Tech 27-7 in the regular-season finale, just the Cavaliers’ second win over the Hokies in the last 21 meetings. 

Fittingly, UVA edged Missouri 13-7 in the Gator Bowl to end the year, its eighth one-score game of the season.