8:03 am | August 22, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:
-
Rachel MarcusESPN Editor
With the ACC Network underway Thursday, we’re helping viewers get familiar with the ACC sports you might not follow closely.
We break down all the sports beside football (you know Clemson reigns supreme), men’s basketball (hello, UVa, Duke and North Carolina) and women’s basketball (Notre Dame and Louisville lead the pack).
Jump to a season:
Fall | Winter | Spring
Fall sports
Men’s soccer (ACC championship: Nov. 5-17, 2019)
What you need to know: Virginia is the most successful ACC men’s soccer program, historically. The Cavaliers have won seven national titles and haven’t missed the NCAA tournament since 1980. The 15-time ACC champs most recently won it all in 2014.
Who else is good? Clemson and North Carolina each has a national title on its résumé, and Duke has one. Most recently, Louisville, Wake Forest, Syracuse and Clemson have been crowned ACC champions.
Notable players: Virginia has a ton of famous alumni, including Ben Olsen, John Harkes, Claudio Reyna, Jeff Agoos and Tony Meola. Those from other schools include Stuart Holden (Clemson), Jason Kreis (Duke), Eddie Pope (North Carolina) and Alejandro Bedoya (Boston College).
Women’s soccer (ACC championship: Nov. 3-10, 2019)
What you need to know: North Carolina runs not just the ACC but also the women’s college soccer world. The Tar Heels own by far the most titles in the sport, with 21 (no other program has more than three), and boast alumna such as Mia Hamm (three-time ACC Player of the Year), Kristine Lilly, Crystal Dunn and Tobin Heath.
Who else is good? Florida State has won two of the past five national titles.
Other notable players: Ashlyn Harris, Allie Long, Heather O’Reilly (North Carolina); Becky Sauerbrunn, Morgan Brian (Virginia).
Volleyball (regular season determines ACC champion)
What you need to know: The ACC isn’t exactly a women’s indoor volleyball powerhouse, with no national championships in its history. In fact, only one ACC school has made it to the final four: Florida State, once.
Who else is good? Pittsburgh, Louisville and North Carolina have paced the conference the past five years.
Men’s cross country (ACC championship: Nov. 1, 2019)
What you need to know: The only ACC squad to win a team national title is Syracuse, which won in 2015 in its second year in the conference.
Who else is good? Beside the Orange, NC State boasts 111 All-ACC selections and 16 ACC championships.
Women’s cross country (ACC championship: Nov. 1, 2019)
What you need to know: NC State and Virginia each have won two national titles, and the Wolfpack can claim three individual titles. North Carolina and Notre Dame (since it joined the ACC) each have two individual national champions.
Who else is good? NC State won the most recent team title, its fourth overall.
Notable athlete: Shalane Flanagan (North Carolina).
Field hockey (ACC championship: Nov. 7-10, 2019)
What you need to know: North Carolina has dominated this sport. The Tar Heels have seven national titles and 21 ACC championships and won the title last season.
Who else is good? Wake Forest three-peated from 2002 to ’04 and most recently made a final four in 2018, but Syracuse has recently developed into a power, winning it all in 2015. ACC teams have won 19 national championships, including 11 of the past 18.
Winter sports
Men’s and women’s fencing (ACC championship: Feb. 22-23, 2020)
What you need to know: Notre Dame, an ACC member in all sports but football since 2013, leads the way here. The Fighting Irish have three national titles and eight All-ACC selections since ’15. Notre Dame most recently won the combined men’s and women’s national title in 2017 and 2018.
Who else is good? Fencing isn’t as widespread as other sports in the ACC, as only Boston College, Duke, North Carolina and Notre Dame offer it. Duke has one coed national title on its résumé.
Notable athlete: Ibtihaj Muhammad (Duke).
Men’s swimming and diving (ACC men’s swimming championship: Feb. 26-29, 2020; ACC men’s diving championship: Feb. 19-22, 2020)
What you need to know: NC State has been the most dominant team in the conference’s history, though Pittsburgh was a power in the Big East (the Panthers joined the ACC in 2013). The Wolfpack have 14 individual national titles and are 25-time ACC champs (team).
Who else is good? Well, the past four ACC champs read like this: NC State, NC State, NC State and NC State. Virginia Tech, however, was the ACC champ in 2014.
Women’s swimming and diving (ACC championship: Feb. 19-22, 2020)
What you need to know: North Carolina has 11 national champions (individual). Meanwhile, Virginia has dominated the conference of late, winning it four of the past five years.
Who else is good? NC State was the ACC champion in 2017, but the Cavaliers have really taken ahold of the conference recently.
Women’s indoor track and field (ACC championship: Feb. 27-29, 2020)
What you need to know: Florida State, Miami and Clemson are the most recent ACC champions. North Carolina has the most team ACC championships, with 15.
Who else is good? Virginia can claim an individual national title, but it hasn’t been as good as Florida State and Miami recently.
Men’s indoor track and field (ACC championship: Feb. 27-29, 2020)
What you need to know: The past five ACC champions were Florida State, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and Florida State.
Who else is good? Clemson can claim 237 All-ACC selections (tops in the conference) and 12 ACC team championships.
Wrestling (ACC championship: March 7 or 8, 2020)
What you need to know: Virginia Tech has been the most successful ACC program the past five years, winning three league titles. NC State and Virginia have won the other two.
Who else is good? Only six ACC programs offer wrestling: NC State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Virginia and Duke. NC State and North Carolina tied for the best conference record last season.
Spring sports
Baseball (ACC championship: May 19-24, 2020)
What you need to know: Miami and Florida State have had two of the most prominent coaches in the sport in Ron Fraser and Mike Martin, respectively. They’ve both produced numerous MLB players, and so has Georgia Tech. Just this past season, Louisville and Florida State won College World Series games.
Who else is good? Duke, Miami, Clemson and NC State joined Georgia Tech, Florida State, North Carolina and Louisville in this past season’s NCAA tournament.
Notable players: Buster Posey, Stephen Drew, Deion Sanders, J.D. Drew (Florida State); Ryan Braun, Yasmani Grandal, Alex Cora, Aubrey Huff, Adam Eaton (Miami); Jason Varitek, Mark Teixeira, Derek Dietrich, Nomar Garciaparra, Charlie Blackmon, Matt Wieters, Kevin Brown (Georgia Tech); Ryan Zimmerman, Mark Reynolds, Sean Doolittle (Virginia); Matt Harvey, Kyle Seager, Andrew Miller, Brian Roberts (North Carolina); Trea Turner (NC State); Tony Sipp (Clemson); Marcus Stroman, Dick Groat (Duke).
Men’s golf (ACC championship: April 16-20, 2020)
What you need to know: Georgia Tech and Wake Forest are two of the more well-known ACC teams. Wake Forest has three national championships (and a famous alumnus in Arnold Palmer). Georgia Tech, meanwhile, has 16 ACC championships. Virginia Tech has won one ACC championship and 11 titles while in other conferences.
Who else is good? This past season, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Louisville, North Carolina and Wake Forest all advanced to the NCAA championship — the most teams for the conference since 2006.
Notable players: Lucas Glover (Clemson); Brooks Koepka (Florida State); Matt Kuchar, Stewart Cink, Bobby Jones (Georgia Tech); Arnold Palmer, Curtis Strange, Webb Simpson (Wake Forest); Davis Love III (North Carolina).
Women’s golf (ACC championship: April 22-26, 2020)
What you need to know: Duke is the crown jewel here, with seven team national championships, including one this past season, when Duke beat fellow ACC member Wake Forest. All seven titles have come since 1999. The Blue Devils also have 21 ACC titles.
Who else is good? When Duke isn’t dominating the ACC field, North Carolina (two), Virginia (two) and Wake Forest (five) have won conference titles.
Men’s lacrosse (ACC championship: April 24-26, 2020)
What you need to know: You could make an argument that Syracuse is the most successful men’s lacrosse program ever, with 10 titles on its résumé — the most in the sport. However, none of those has happened since the Orange joined the ACC for the 2014 season.
Who else is good? Virginia (six titles, including last season), Duke (three), North Carolina (four) and Notre Dame (two-time runner-up) are the premier powers of the conference.
Women’s lacrosse (ACC championship: April 22-26, 2020)
What you need to know: North Carolina has dominated the conference of late, winning the past three ACC titles. The Tar Heels have also won two national titles.
Who else is good? Boston College has been the national runner-up the past three seasons. Syracuse made a title-game appearance in 2014, and Virginia has three championships in its history.
Rowing (ACC championship: May 15-16, 2020)
What you need to know: Virginia has won 10 consecutive ACC championships. The Cavs have two national titles and are 19-time ACC champs. They lead the conference with 87 All-ACC selections.
Who else is good? Clemson is the only other ACC team to win a conference title.
Softball (ACC championship: May 6-9, 2020)
What you need to know: Florida State dominates. It won it all in 2018 and has 15 ACC championships.
Who else is good? FSU has won the past six ACC championships. In the past 10 years, Georgia Tech and NC State have claimed conference titles, too. Clemson will field a team for the first time in the 2020 spring season.
Men’s tennis (ACC championship: April 15-19, 2020)
What you need to know: Virginia has four national titles, and Wake Forest has one.
Who else is good? North Carolina has a conference-high 25 ACC titles, followed by Duke and Virginia with 12 apiece.
Women’s tennis (ACC championship: April 15-19, 2020)
What you need to know: North Carolina hasn’t lost an ACC championship since 2016, when Virginia won.
Who else is good? Duke has 17 ACC championships.
Men’s outdoor track and field (ACC championship: May 14-16, 2020)
What you need to know: Florida State placed 17th in the NCAA Division I championships, with Virginia coming in tied for 18th and Notre Dame tied for 28th.
Who else is good? FSU, UNC, NC State and Clemson all have at least five ACC titles.
Women’s outdoor track and field (ACC championship: May 14-16, 2020)
What you need to know: Florida State tied for 10th at the NCAA Division I championships. UNC tied for 17th and Miami 20th.
Who else is good? Clemson, UNC and UVa all have at least five ACC titles.
Powered by WPeMatico