WINCHESTER, Va. - Ten years ago today, on September 29, 2010, Shenandoah University took a major step forward in the development of its intercollegiate athletics program when it announced the acceptance of a membership offer in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

The then 20-sport athletics program would become the 14th member of the ODAC on July 1, 2012 after 20 years of membership in the USA South (nee Dixie Intercollegiate) Athletic Conference. One year prior, the Hornets field hockey program, along with the men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track & field programs, joined the ODAC for competition in the 2011-12 athletic year.

Field hockey and the track & field teams were all associate members of the Middle Atlantic Conference. The MAC freed SU to have those teams move into the ODAC following the completion of the 2010-11 athletic competition.

In the intervening nine years, Shenandoah has won a total of five ODAC team titles (three baseball, one field hockey, and one women’s basketball) along with 26 individual titles in indoor and outdoor track & field.

Over 300 student-athletes have earned All-ODAC accolades with 29 named as major award winners (Player or Rookie of the Year, Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and Tournament MVP).

Additionally, three coaches: Kevin Anderson (baseball), Ashley Smeltzer-Kraft (field hockey) and Scott Singhass (men’s golf), have been recognized as the league’s Coach of the Year. Anderson, who has led his Hornets to 106 league wins and three conference championships in seven seasons of conference play, was named as ODAC CoY in both 2014 and 2017. Smeltzer-Kraft has matched him, grabbing the award in 2013 and 2016 while Singhass was named in 2015. 

Anderson, along with Singhass, women’s lacrosse coach Lindsey Lutz, cross country/track & field coach Andy Marrocco, and women’s soccer coach Elizabeth Pike '11, all guided their programs through the transition from their previous league homes to the ODAC.

Marrocco, who had his cross country teams in the USA South and track & field programs in the MAC prior to the move, has seen his six squads have better than 100 All-ODAC honorees with 26 having won ODAC titles and two: Shamyra Wilkerson ‘19, ‘21 and Elijah Morton ‘20, ‘22, both being named All-America. Wilkerson is an eight-time All-ODAC honoree and Morton a two-time selection.

Since joining the ODAC for the 2013 season, Anderson’s Hornets have won a league-best 106 games (posting a .736 winning percentage) and represented the league in the NCAA Tournament every year since 2014. SU is the reigning two-time ODAC champions in baseball, having won in both 2018 and 2019. The ‘19 squad also won the league’s third regional title in the past three seasons.

While it was the field hockey team playing the first-ever ODAC game, a 2-1 loss to Virginia Wesleyan in 2011, it was women’s soccer that posted the department’s first-ever ODAC Tournament win.

In 2012, after closing out its membership in the USA South with a championship over longtime league power Christopher Newport, the women’s soccer team announced its arrival in the ODAC by upsetting Washington & Lee, 3-2, in double overtime in the tournament quarterfinals.

The win over the second-seeded Generals kickstarted a run of four straight trips to the league’s semi-finals for Pike’s club.

Lutz took over the women’s lacrosse program in 2009 and quickly turned around the fortunes of the team. In 2010, she was named as the USA South Coach of the Year before leading the 2012 squad into the USA South Tournament championship game.

In 2013, despite moving into a league with a number of historical powers, the team matched its USA South success by hosting the ODAC Tournament championship after finishing the regular season with an 8-2 mark.

Those eight wins included victories over longtime league powers Washington & Lee, Roanoke, and Lynchburg.

The women’s lacrosse team has advanced to the ODAC Tournament semi-finals five times, including the last three straight.

###