General

NCAA Team and Individual Titles Highlight ACC's 2022-23 Academic Year

GREENSBORO, N.C. (theACC.com) – Atlantic Coast Conference teams delivered unprecedented NCAA Championship numbers during the 2022-23 academic year.
 
ACC teams closed out the year with a league-record nine NCAA titles and conference student-athletes closed out the year with 29 individual national championships. Six ACC teams ranked among the top 20 of the final LEARFIELD Directors Cup Division I standings released on Wednesday. 

The ACC has won 16 team national championships in the last two academic years, also a conference record.
 
“It has been an extraordinary year for the ACC, and we are so proud of the continued success of our student-athletes, coaches, and programs,” said ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips, Ph.D. “The ACC’s historic accomplishments over the last two years are a tribute to the leadership at our member institutions and I applaud them for their ongoing dedication.”
 
ACC teams won NCAA championships this academic year in the following sports:
  • Women’s Cross Country – NC State
  • Field Hockey – North Carolina
  • Men’s Soccer – Syracuse
  • Women’s Swimming and Diving – Virginia
  • Fencing – Notre Dame
  • Women’s Tennis – North Carolina
  • Men’s Tennis – Virginia
  • Women’s Golf – Wake Forest
  • Men's Lacrosse – Notre Dame
All in the Family
This marked the fifth academic year in which there were multiple all-ACC NCAA championship games:
  • 1995-96: North Carolina-Maryland field hockey and Maryland-Virginia women's lacrosse.
  • 2005-06: Maryland-Duke field hockey and Maryland-Duke women's basketball.
  • 2010-11: Maryland-North Carolina field hockey and Virginia-Maryland men's lacrosse.
  • 2013-14: Notre Dame-Maryland men's soccer, Duke-Notre Dame men's lacrosse and Maryland-Syracuse women's lacrosse.
  • 2022-23: North Carolina-NC State women's tennis and Duke-Notre Dame men's lacrosse.
 Additionally, 17 ACC teams joined the conference’s NCAA championship squads in reaching the national finals or semifinals during the current academic year:
  • North Carolina Women’s Soccer – NCAA Finals
  • Florida State Women’s Soccer – NCAA Semifinals
  • Pitt Men’s Soccer – NCAA Semifinals
  • Pitt Volleyball – NCAA Semifinals
  • Louisville Volleyball – NCAA Finals
  • Miami Men’s Basketball – NCAA Semifinals
  • Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball – NCAA Semifinals
  • NC State Women’s Tennis – NCAA Finals
  • Boston College Women’s Lacrosse – NCAA Finals
  • Syracuse Women’s Lacrosse – NCAA Semifinals
  • Duke Men’s Lacrosse – NCAA Finals
  • Virginia Men’s Lacrosse – NCAA Semifinals
  • Georgia Tech Men’s Golf – NCAA Finals
  • Florida State Men’s Golf – NCAA Semifinals
  • North Carolina Men’s Golf – NCAA Semifinals
  • Florida State Softball – NCAA Finals
  • Wake Forest Baseball - NCAA Semifinals
How it Happened
A capsule look at each of the ACC’s nine national championships in 2022-23:
 
Women’s Cross Country – NC State
Ranked No. 1 throughout the season, Katelyn Tuohy and the NC State women lived up to their billing at the 2022 NCAA Championships on Nov. 19 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. With Tuohy claiming the gold medal and Kelsey Chmiel taking the bronze, the Wolfpack took home another national championship. NC State’s second consecutive NCAA crown is the fourth for an ACC team in women’s cross country. Virginia also claimed back-to-back titles in 1981 and 1982.
 
Field Hockey – North Carolina
North Carolina claimed the 2022 NCAA Division I Field Hockey Championship in dramatic fashion on Nov. 20, scoring the winning goal with 1:19 left to edge defending national champion Northwestern, 2-1, in the title game at the Sherman Family Athletic Complex. The NCAA field hockey championship is the fourth in five seasons for UNC, with five-time ACC Offensive Player of the Year Erin Matson scoring the winning goal in each of the Tar Heels’ last two title-game wins (2000 and 2002).
 
Men’s Soccer – Syracuse
Syracuse won its first national championship in program history on Dec. 12 in Cary, North Carolina. Following 110 minutes and a 2-2 draw, the No. 3 seed Orange outlasted No. 13 Indiana, 7-6, in a penalty-kick shootout. Syracuse was just the fourth team in ACC men’s soccer history to win an ACC regular-season title, ACC Championship and NCAA Championship in the same season, joining Virginia (1991, 1992) and North Carolina (2011).
 
Women’s Swimming and Diving – Virginia  
Virginia won its third national championship on March 19 in Knoxville, Tennessee. Kate Douglass won three individual events (200 IM, 100 fly, 200 breast), Gretchen Walsh won two and Alex Walsh took home one (400 IM). The Cavaliers won five relay championship titles (200 medley, 200 free, 400 medley, 400 free, 800 free) on their way to cementing their place in history as the fifth program to win three consecutive NCAA Championships (2021, 2022, 2023).
 
Fencing – Notre Dame
Led by individual national champions Luke Linder (men’s sabre) and Eszter Muhari (women’s épée), Notre Dame captured its third straight national championship on March 26 in Durham, North Carolina. The Fighting Irish have claimed five of the last six NCAA Championships and 13 in program history.
 
Men’s Tennis – Virginia
Virginia men’s tennis successfully defended its 2022 NCAA title on May 21 in Orlando. The Cavaliers swept Ohio State, 4-0, in the title match to earn their sixth Championship and second straight under head coach Andres Pedroso. Inaki Montes clinched the victory on Court Two as the Cavaliers did not drop a set in singles play against the Buckeyes. UVA closed out the season on a 22-match win streak and did not lose an outdoor match all season.
 
Women’s Tennis – North Carolina
North Carolina won its first NCAA championship in program history on May 20, after defeating NC State, 4-1, at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. The Tar Heels took an early 1-0 lead after securing the doubles point and used three straight singles wins from Fiona Crawley, Carson Tanguilig and Elizabeth Scotty to secure the win.
 
Women’s Golf – Wake Forest
For the first time in program history, Wake Forest claimed the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship title following a 3-1 victory over USC in the Match Play final on May 24 at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. After four rounds of grueling stroke play, the Demon Deacons earned the No. 3 seed and had to defeat conference foe Florida State in the quarterfinals and then SEC champion Texas A&M in the semifinals before knocking off the Trojans in the final. The women’s golf title is the first for the ACC since 2019.
 
Men’s Lacrosse – Notre Dame
Notre Dame won its first national championship in program history, downing Duke 13-9 in an all-ACC final on Memorial Day in Philadelphia. ACC programs (at the time of the event) have won 18 NCAA titles. Current ACC membership collectively owns 26 NCAA championships, including 10 of the last 15 as well as 15 titles since 2000.