NC State women’s basketball chasing elusive third straight ACC title

NC State women’s basketball is chasing history.

Winning three consecutive championships in any Atlantic Coast Conference sport is both significantly rare and exceedingly hard.

That’s what makes this weekend’s trip to Greensboro for the ACC Women’s Basketball Championship so interesting for NC State head coach Wes Moore and his nationally No. 3 ranked squad. They have a chance to do something the program has never done since its inception in 1973.

In fact, it has happened only four previous times by any women’s team in the league: Maryland (1981-83), (Duke, five straight from 2000-04), North Carolina (four straight from 2005-08) and Notre Dame (four straight from 2014-17).

What makes it even more significant for NC State is that only once in the history of either the men’s or women’s program has the Wolfpack won more than back-to-back titles. That happened from 1954-56, when head coach Everett Case and his squads won the first three ACC men’s championships.

That’s only happened four times in the 68-year history of the men’s tournament: once by State (1954-56, once by North Carolina (1967-69) and twice by Duke (five straight from 1999-2003, three straight from 2009-11).

Some sports, of course, have had teams establish huge dynasties through the years. Former ACC member Maryland once won 25 consecutive indoor track titles, 24 consecutive outdoor track and field titles and 20 straight wrestling championships. North Carolina won 15 women’s soccer championships in a row, one fewer than the Maryland men’s 16.

Duke won 13 women’s golf titles in a row and Wake Forest won nine straight men’s golf titles. Florida State once won nine consecutive football titles.

At NC State, the longest streak of consecutive titles is 12 by Don Easterling’s men’s swimming and diving team from 1971-82, seven times by Rollie Geiger’s men’s outdoor track and field team (1982-88) and seven times by Geiger’s women’s cross country teams (1987-93).

The reigning NCAA-champion NC State women’s cross country team has a chance to match those seven straight titles later this year, after head coach Laurie Henes won her sixth in a row last fall.

For Moore, it’s a little too hard to look that far down the line. NC State will face stiff competition, even after getting the league’s double bye into its opening game on Friday at the Greensboro Coliseum against the winner of tomorrow’s game between eighth-seeded Boston College and ninth-seeded Florida State.

Still, the veteran coach says there is an inherent advantage going into this weekend as the reigning two-time champion and No. 1 seed in the tournament. He wouldn’t trade it for, say, the next top recruiting class in the nation.

“Our players get really excited about the ACC Tournament,” said Moore, who enters the event with one of the league’s most experienced teams, thanks to the additional year granted by the NCAA because of COVID.

“It’s a big deal and, if anything, it’s an advantage that our team has had success [the last two years]. They know our routine when we get over there, how we are going to prepare. They go over realizing it’s all about the process.

“Right now, we have momentum, we are playing well and we want to keep that going.”

Of course, the Pack has another postseason goal going as well: Three consecutive eliminations in the NCAA Championship Sweet Sixteen (not counting the 2020 tournament that was not held at the start of the pandemic).

Moore knows that winning another ACC title would be great to put on this team’s resume, but they have even bigger ambitions when the Women’s NCAA Championships begin in two weeks, especially for senior Elissa Cunane and super seniors Raina Perez, Kayla Jones and Kai Crutchfield.

“They want to write a different ending,” he said.

Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker and can be reached at [email protected].

NC State’s Longest ACC Championship Streaks

Sport	Years	Streak
Men’s Swimming & Diving	1971-82	12
Men’s Outdoor Track & FIeld	1982-88	7
Women’s Cross Country	1987-93	7
Men’s Swimming & Diving	2015-20	6
Women’s Cross Country	2016-present	6
Men’s Cross Country	1995-99	5
Men’s Swimming & Diving	1966-69	4
Women’s Cross Country	1995-98	4
Men’s Cross Country	2001-04	4
Men’s Swimming & Diving	1954-56	3
Men’s Basketball	1954-56	3
Football	1963-65	3
Baseball	1973-75	3
Women’s Cross Country	1978-80	3
Wrestling	1981-83	3
Wrestling	1988-90	3
Wrestling	2019-present	3
Women’s Cross Country	1983-85	3
Women’s Cross Country	2000-02	3

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