Virginia Athletics did not just win in 2025 — they conquered. Through historic upsets, clinched titles and national headlines, the Cavaliers delivered one of the most thrilling years to be a Virginia fan yet. Football’s Sept. 26 double-overtime upset of then-No. 8 Florida State set the tone, and the months that followed brought breakthrough results across multiple sports — from postseason hardware to long-awaited ACC success.
Here are five of Virginia sports’ most notable moments from 2025.
#1
It goes without saying, but the defining moment of Virginia sports in 2025 — and, perhaps, for decades to come — was indisputably the program’s 46-38 upset over then-No. 8 Florida State Sept. 26. A win over the Seminoles in a gripping double overtime and the ensuing viral field storm established Virginia as an emerging force on the college football main stage. What started as an upset quickly morphed into a momentum that carried the Cavaliers through a historic 11-win season, ACC regular season title, a bowl game clinch against No. 25 Missouri and, not to be outdone, an ever-lasting plethora of bragging rights as one of the most notorious field rushes in collegiate history.
#2
2025 proved to be the year of the underdog in the competitive landscape encompassed by Virginia, and this transcended past the football gridiron. Among the year’s most unlikely victories was also Virginia men’s soccer’s 6-3 win over then-seeded No. 1 Wake Forest. The Cavaliers punched out a 5-0 lead early on and stood steady amid an aggressive second-half pushback from the Demon Deacons. The victory –– which marked the program’s first major triumph over a top-ranked challenger since 2019 –– seemed to spark a run that pushed Virginia through a gritty season and right into the arms of their first regular season ACC title since 2001.
#3
When Virginia men’s tennis players junior Dylan Dietrich and senior Måns Dahlberg served, their NCAA Doubles Championship title followed. The fifth-ranked tandem took down third-ranked Ohio State in a 6-2, 7-6 straight-set win Nov. 23 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla., making the dyad the fourth in Virginia history to make such a run. What energized such a momentous win? The pair’s impressive chemistry, especially considering that they only coupled up during Dietrich’s sophomore season and Dahlberg’s junior year. Since then, the two immortalized a friendship first forged in the dorms into history, which now hangs from the ceiling of Charlottesville’s Boar’s Head Sports Club.
#4
Virginia women’s outdoor track and field left it all in Winston-Salem, N.C., where they won the program’s first ACC Outdoor Championship team title for the first time since 1987. Accumulating 93 points collectively, the Cavaliers flexed their range in gritty distance performances, ferocious sprints and explosive jumps. Among these shining standouts was senior Margot Appleton, who captured her 1500-meter ACC title threepeat, junior Celia Rifaterra, who capped her undefeated regular season by clearing a personal-best 1.86 meter bar in high jump and sophomore Maya Rollins, who followed a record-setting prelim performance of 13.33 seconds in the 100 meter hurdles with a 13.42 second silver medal finish. The Cavaliers’ individual grit fused into something a whole lot bigger, as it carried Coach Vin Lananna into being named the Outdoor ACC Women’s Coach of the Year.
#5
Last, but certainly not least, Virginia women’s swim and dive claimed its fifth consecutive NCAA team title. The Cavaliers’ conquest cemented their spot beside Stanford and Texas as the only three women’s programs in the sport to ever win five times back-to-back and the first Virginia sport to do so in the University’s history. The staggering 127-point advantage over runner-up Stanford was powered by then-senior Gretchen Walsh, who took home gold in three individual events and seven overall, and then-sophomore Claire Curzan, who took two individual events and six overall. Virginia clinched six individual events and four out of the five relays at the championship and smashed six NCAA and American records across the meet, only amplifying the legacy that Virginia women’s swim and dive has meticulously constructed over the last few years.
Honorable mention
And because I just couldn’t help myself, I have to mention Virginia football overtaking Virginia Tech 27-7 in the Commonwealth Clash football game. Too soon? Not soon enough? Up to you. Now, this is not an opinion column, but I think, undeniably, that the lyrics of the “Good Ol’ Song” taste a little sweeter when we hold a 20-point advantage over Tech. May the good spirit of a Cavalier and the momentum of Virginia football’s historic 2025 season carry forward into 2026 tenfold.
Whether it was on courts, pools or fields, Virginia sports top moments in 2025 came in different forms — upsets, firsts and titles that reinforced the program’s place on the national stage. The past year’s most memorable moments now set the stakes, but also the momentum, that will carry the Cavaliers into another year of triumphs and trophies.
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