Old Dominion Monarchs and Lady Monarchs


The Old Dominion Monarchs and Lady Monarchs are composed of 18 teams representing Old Dominion University in intercollegiate athletics. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, football, golf, sailing, soccer, swimming and diving, and tennis. Women's sports include basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, golf, sailing, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, rowing, and volleyball. The Monarchs compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and are members of Conference USA as their primary conference affiliation.
The football team played one season as an independent as part of the transition to FBS and began competing as a full football-playing member of C-USA in 2014.
Old Dominion's field hockey team competes in the Big East Conference. The field hockey program had previously announced that it would join the original Big East for the 2013–14 school year. However, following the split of the original Big East, the two successor conferences, the new Big East and the American Athletic Conference, agreed that The American would not sponsor field hockey, and the new Big East would take in all of The American's programs in those sports as associate members.
The women's lacrosse team spent the 2013-14 academic year as an independent before joining the Atlantic Sun Conference as an associate member effective July 1, 2014. In 2017 it was announced that Old Dominion Women's Lacrosse would compete in the Big East Conference beginning in 2019. In 2014 the women's rowing team became an associate member of the Big 12 Conference, which effectively took over sponsorship of that sport from C-USA. Later, the University announced that the rowing team would change its conference affiliation and compete in the American Athletic Conference beginning in the 2018–19 school year.
Following the move to Conference USA, the men's swimming and diving team competed for two years as an independent, as C-USA does not sponsor the sport. On July 16, 2015, the team announced it would join the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association, later renamed the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association, beginning with the 2015–16 season.
In 2017, the university announced it would add Women's Volleyball as a scholarship sport, slated to compete in Conference USA beginning in 2020. The university discontinued wrestling in April 2020 after a study on the athletic departments sport sponsorship, combined with added financial pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.

Sports sponsored

Conference affiliation

Sports

Field hockey

The ODU Monarchs field hockey team is one of the most successful college field hockey programs in the nation. Overall the team has won 17 regular season conference titles and 15 conference tournament titles including eight straight CAA regular season and tournament titles from 1996-2003. The team has also won a NCAA field hockey record nine national titles. From 1990–1993 the Monarchs won 66 straight games including three national titles. As of 2013, 50 different Monarchs have been named All-Americans.
Note that field hockey is one of two ODU women's sports that uses "Monarchs" as its nickname instead of "Lady Monarchs", the other being lacrosse. The coeducational team in the non-NCAA sport of sailing also uses "Monarchs".

Discontinued sports

Wrestling

Old Dominion Monarchs wrestling was established in 1957. The school's departure from the CAA forced the wrestling team to become an associate member of the Mid-American Conference, as Conference USA does not sponsor wrestling. It also was a catalyst that caused the CAA to stop sponsoring the sport. Practices took place at the Wrestling Facility and dual meets and tournaments were held at the Ted Constant Convocation Center located on campus.
Former Monarch wrestlers who went on to compete in mixed martial arts include Brandon Vera and Shanon Slack.
The wrestling program was discontinued in April 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the university to cut back for financial reasons. The team's last head coach was Steve Martin, who had spent the last 16 years with the program.

Accomplishments

NCAA team championships

Old Dominion has 10 NCAA team national championships.