Completed Event: Volleyball at Old Dominion on November 8, 2025 , Win , 3, to, 2 , (25-22, 21-25, 25-15, 23-25, 15-11)
VB
Final
James Madison
3
at Old Dominion
(25-22, 21-25, 25-15, 23-25, 15-11)
2
James Madison University | Official Athletics Site
JMU Athletics Celebrates 2019-2020 Successes
7/24/2020 10:09:00 AM | Administration
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced a premature conclusion to the 2019-2020 competitive year, James Madison Athletics continued its half decade of widespread success and departmental achievements.
JMU captured CAA championships in football, men's soccer and swimming and diving while also earning the regular season title in women's basketball. The three titles came amid the CAA awarding just 10 of its 22 total championships during the condensed year. JMU won the most CAA titles, followed by Hofstra and William & Mary with two apiece.
The Dukes achieved NCAA postseason competition in four sports, with football, men's soccer and swimming and diving joined by cross country. NCAA participation was highlighted by football making its third appearance in the last four years in the FCS Championship Game as well as swimming and diving qualifying three individuals for the NCAA Championship, marking the first time with multiple representatives in program history.
Overall, JMU continued its competitive success to the tune of a .624 overall winning percentage. That ranked second in the annual Virginia state survey conducted by the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID). Virginia ranked first overall at .663 while JMU was also second among women's sports at .668, trailing Old Dominion's .705.
Individually, Sara Jubas (softball) and Faith Anderson (swimming and diving) gave JMU its first multiple CoSIDA Academic All-America honorees since 2003 and the first ever in their respective programs.
The shortened year did not hinder individual national achievement in competition with 15 Dukes earning All-America honors. (full list below) Three individuals were selected in professional sport drafts – Manuel Ferriol (MLS FC Dallas), Kamiah Smalls (WNBA Indiana) and Ben DiNucci (NFL Dallas).
A comprehensive list of JMU Athletics achievements for 2019-2020 follows:
2019-20 By the Numbers/Department Snapshot
Accomplishments
2019-2020 Award Lists
CAA Champions
JMU captured CAA championships in football, men's soccer and swimming and diving while also earning the regular season title in women's basketball. The three titles came amid the CAA awarding just 10 of its 22 total championships during the condensed year. JMU won the most CAA titles, followed by Hofstra and William & Mary with two apiece.
The Dukes achieved NCAA postseason competition in four sports, with football, men's soccer and swimming and diving joined by cross country. NCAA participation was highlighted by football making its third appearance in the last four years in the FCS Championship Game as well as swimming and diving qualifying three individuals for the NCAA Championship, marking the first time with multiple representatives in program history.
Overall, JMU continued its competitive success to the tune of a .624 overall winning percentage. That ranked second in the annual Virginia state survey conducted by the Virginia Sports Information Directors (VaSID). Virginia ranked first overall at .663 while JMU was also second among women's sports at .668, trailing Old Dominion's .705.
Individually, Sara Jubas (softball) and Faith Anderson (swimming and diving) gave JMU its first multiple CoSIDA Academic All-America honorees since 2003 and the first ever in their respective programs.
The shortened year did not hinder individual national achievement in competition with 15 Dukes earning All-America honors. (full list below) Three individuals were selected in professional sport drafts – Manuel Ferriol (MLS FC Dallas), Kamiah Smalls (WNBA Indiana) and Ben DiNucci (NFL Dallas).
A comprehensive list of JMU Athletics achievements for 2019-2020 follows:
2019-20 By the Numbers/Department Snapshot
- .624 winning % all sports
- 56th in Learfield Director's Cup final fall standings
- 3 CAA championships
- 2 regular season titles
- 4 NCAA appearances
- 3.048 Department GPA
- 87% Department Federal Success Rate
- 2 programs earning NCAA team APR recognition
- 16 of 17 programs 960 or higher in APR
- 12 programs improved or equaled previous APR score
- 104 President's List and 224 Dean's List Student-Athletes
- 116 Graduates (Winter 2019, Spring 2020, Summer 2020)
- 646 student-athletes earned Athletic Director's List academic recognition across both semesters (includes duplications)
- 6,482 department record for hours of community service, including 8th of 112 Division I Helper-Helper schools
- 15 All-Americans
- 2 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans
- 6 CAA Players of the Year
- 1 CAA Coaches of the Year
- 1 CAA Rookie of the Year
- 3 student-athletes drafted in professional drafts across three different sports
Accomplishments
- JMU posted a .624 winning percentage across all sports as of March 12 when competition came to a halt due to COVID-19. JMU led the state of Virginia for three consecutive years (.660 in 15-16 | .633 in 16-17 | .669 in 17-18) and finished at .668 in second for 2018-19 but maintaining a consistent percentage rate of excellence.
- JMU ranked 56th in the final fall Learfield Director's Cup standings in the shortened data. Last year (2018-19) JMU was 84th, the second-best department finish since 64 in 1999-2000 (81 in 2017-18). Fifth straight year in top 100 (97 in 15-16, 87 in 16-17, 81 in 17-18, 84 in 18-19, 56 in 19-20) and fourth straight year leading the CAA.
- JMU had four teams appear in the national rankings in 2019-20. Football ranked No. 2 every week of the season. Men's soccer started 11th in preseason polls and had been in and out of the top 25 all season, ranking 24th entering the NCAA Championship before falling out of the final ranking. Women's basketball was ranked third in the CollegeInsider.com mid-major final poll and also received votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches National Poll. Men's golf also received votes in the national coaches poll. Lacrosse began the season 17th in the IWLCA poll before finishing 13th while softball was as high as 18th and 20th in the two major national polls.
- JMU sold 7,252 football season tickets, over 7,000 for the second straight season. JMU ranked third nationally for FCS regular-season attendance at 22,144.
- JMU added security measures in Bridgeforth Stadium, instituting a clear-bag policy and walk-through metal detectors. The department and university also added beer sales to the public for the first time for the 2019 season. Aramark sold $250,000 in gross revenue in alcohol sales ($200,000 regular season + $50,000 in three playoff games). As an additional gameday enhancement, the turf on Zane Showker Field was replaced in June, featuring updated departmental branding and a Verizon cell unit was installed in October to boost mobile capabilities.
- JMU announced plans to expand Sentara Park, home of soccer, lacrosse and track and field. The expansion will add game day locker room and sports medicine facilities, to also include permanent concessions and storage. The project, made possible by an anonymous $1 million gift, is currently on hold due to COVID-19 budget impact.
- JMU upgraded the turf at Eagle Field at Veterans Memorial Park prior to the 2020 season.
- In major professional sports drafts, Manuel Ferriol was selected 40th overall, the 14th pick in the 2nd round, by FC Dallas in the MLS SuperDraft. Kamiah Smalls was selected in the third round of the WNBA Draft with the 28th overall pick by the Indiana Fever. Ben DiNucci was selected with the No. 231 overall pick in the 7th round of the NFL Draft by the Dallas Cowboys. Four Dukes signed undrafted free agent contracts in the NFL: John Daka – Baltimore Ravens, Brandon Polk – LA Rams, Ron'Dell Carter – Dallas Cowboys, Dylan Stapleton – Houston Texans.
- JMU Athletics collected a record total of $4,943,248 in overall fundraising for the 2019 calendar year. Total donors of 4,586 were also a calendar-year record.
- On April 28, JMU celebrated its JMA Awards (virtually, due to COVID-19), with top honors going to Male Athlete of the Year Ron'Dell Carter of football and Female Athlete of the Year Megan Good of softball. Casey Carter Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors went to baseball's Kevin Kelly, swimming and diving's Faith Anderson and softball's Sara Jubas.
- Football finished as national runner-up at 14-2 (tying program wins record) and No. 2 in the national polls. The Dukes won the CAA Championship for the fourth time in five years, winning it outright for the third time in four years. It was the second runner-up finish in four national championship game appearances in program history. JMU led the nation with 10 All-Americans, including Ron'Dell Carter as a consensus First Team All-American and runner-up for the Buck Buchanan Award. JMU is one of just six Division I football programs to average 11 or more wins over the last six years (JMU, NDSU, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma).
- 2.7 million viewers watched the FCS Championship game, approximately one million more than any football game in school history and nearly one million more than either the 2015 or 2017 JMU appearance on ESPN's College GameDay. The viewership number equates to a media value of over $8 million. It was the first time in over 20 years for the game to be on network TV on ABC.
- Men's soccer finished 11-7-3 and captured the CAA Championship for the second straight season with a 1-0 double-overtime win at UNCW. JMU was ranked as high as No. 11 in preseason, moved back into the polls in October following a win over No. 1 Wake Forest and was again ranked No. 24 after the CAA title. Manuel Ferriol was named CAA Player of the Year to lead eight Dukes earning All-CAA honors. He added ECAC Player of the Year and All-American honors from College Soccer News.
- Women's soccer went 9-12-1 to earn the No. 6 seed in the CAA Championship, but knocked off No. 3 UNCW and No. 2 Delaware to advance to the title match at No. 1 Hofstra. Four Dukes were named All-CAA.
- Volleyball went 20-8 and finished second place in the CAA while also being runner-up in the CAA Championship. It was the fifth straight year of 20 or more wins for the program. Freshman Sophia Davis was an AVCA East Coast All-Region honoree while M'Kayla White joined her as an honorable mention honoree.
- Field hockey went 8-11 in the regular season to tie for third in the league.
- Cross country finished fourth in the CAA with Brooke Manion claiming top team honors in 18th place. The Dukes went on to place 20th in the NCAA Regional.
- Cheerleading competed in the UCA College Nationals and placed fifth in the All-Girl Game Day Division and 13th in the Open Coed Game Day Division, both out of 24 teams.
- Women's basketball went 25-4 for the 15th straight season winning at least 23 games. The Dukes shared the CAA regular season title and finished ranked No. 3 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major poll. Kamiah Smalls was named CAA Player of the Year and was joined by Kayla Cooper-Williams as Defensive Player of the Year and Kiki Jefferson as Rookie of the Year.
- Men's basketball was picked fourth in the CAA preseason poll before going 9-21 overall and 2-16 in the CAA. JMU parted with Louis Rowe as head coach and hired Mark Byington on March 20.
- Swimming & diving went 7-3 in dual competition and went on to capture its third consecutive CAA Championship in February at the Christiansburg Aquatics Center. Six divers advanced to the NCAA Zone A Diving Championship. Hope Byrum was named Most Outstanding Diver of the Meet and Diver of the Year and John Wolsh was named CAA Diving Coach of the Year. For the first time in program history, JMU qualified multiple student-athletes for the NCAA Championship Meet with senior Bonnie Zhang and junior Julianna Jones later joined by Hope Byram as an alternate. Zhang and Jones were also declared the first All-Americans in program history.
- Men's golf got off to one of its best starts in program history, capturing three team titles in five fall tournaments. JMU received votes in the Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Poll as the fall closed and at season's end sat 49th in the GolfStat.com Team Rankings, better than any finish in program history. The team finished with its best scoring record in program history.
- Women's golf set a new program record for team scoring with Kate Owens also moving into first all-time for individual career scoring.
- Defending CAA Champion women's tennis got off to a 10-4 start before the season was shut down.
- Men's tennis got off to an 8-5 start.
- Softball went 13-6 overall. The Dukes sat 18th and 20th in the two most significant national polls to open the season. JMU had two players – Kate Gordon and Odicci Alexander – named to the USA Softball preseason top 50 watch list for the second time in program history. Gordon set the program's career home runs record at 50.
- Lacrosse started 17th in the preseason national polls and won five straight to finish 5-1 and ranked 13th. Molly Dougherty was named to the Tewaaraton Award watch list while Dougherty and Rachel Matey were both named Inside Lacrosse honorable mention All-Americans.
- Baseball had a strong start to the season at 10-6.
- Indoor track & field competed well at the ECAC Championships, highlighted by Meredith Willis finishing as the meet's top individual point scorer, winning the 200-meter dash and setting a school record. Willis & Skyla Davidson (triple jump) earned All-ECAC honors while the 4x800 and 4x400 relays did as well.
- JMU Athletics signed a significant, 15-year contract extension with Learfield IMG College for the university's sports multimedia rights.
- JMU Athletics entered into a five-year apparel agreement with BSN Sports, pulling all 18 sports under the Nike umbrella for the first time.
- JMU Athletics entered a partnership with INFLCR, a social media tool that puts branded content in the hands of its most important brand ambassadors, JMU student-athletes.
- This past year JMU has announced the following new or renewed coaching contracts: softball Loren LaPorte (4 years through 2023), men's basketball Mark Byington (6 years through 2026), men's golf Carter Cheves (4 years through 2024) - replacing Jeff Forbes (retired).
- Construction continues on the Atlantic Union Bank Center, scheduled for a November 2020 opening. The roof was enclosed in late October and the arena floor concrete poured in early November. Daktronics scoreboards were installed in early July with work continuing into late summer and fall on interior finishes and vendor installations. The adjacent 1,500-car parking deck opened in August for university use.
- JMU inducted its 2019 Hall of Fame class Friday, Sept. 13. The class included: Keisha Banks-Thornton (track and field/cross country), Kelsey Cutchins (field hockey), Carol Green Robertson (women's golf), Christina "Corky" Julien (women's soccer), Tony LeZotte (football) and Tom Martin (men's soccer head coach).
- Fox Semones (baseball) and Bonnie Zhang (swimming & diving) were honored as CAA Institutional Scholar-Athletes for the year. Meanwhile, Alicia Cooperman (field hockey), Halle Duenkel (lacrosse) and Julianna Jones (swimming & diving) earned CAA Leadership & Sport Excellence Awards.
- 104 student-athletes named to President's List and 224 to Dean's List across both semesters of 2019-20 academic year. (compared to 35/120 in 2017-18 and 58/139 in 2018-19). Altogether 17 student-athletes graduated in fall 2019, 73 in Spring 2020 and 26 in Summer 2020. The department posted an overall GPA of 3.048.
- The JMU Student-Athlete Leadership Program hosted 10 in-person leadership and professional development workshops over the Fall and Spring, averaging almost 250 student-athletes at each session, with 336 student-athletes (Fall) and 307 student-athletes (Spring) meeting the requirement of attending four programs. 100 student-athletes met with Dukes LEAD and JMU Career & Academic Planning staff to work on personal career goals. In response to COVID-19, Dukes LEAD offered virtual career coaching over Zoom (20 sessions) and had student-athletes complete their workshop requirement by watching and reflecting on specific TEDTalk videos (570 reflections). Workshop content highlights and national speakers included Jim Cavale of INFLCR (social media branding), MLS player and alumnus CJ Sapong (purpose through sports), Olympian Chris Mosier (LGBTQ/Inclusion) and Olympian Kate Ziegler (self-reflection and acceptance).
- Softball's Sara Jubas and swimming & diving's Faith Anderson were named CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, each being the first in their program's history at JMU. It is the first year JMU has had multiple Academic All-Americans since 2002-03.
- Field hockey's Alicia Cooperman served as the CAA's national SAAC rep for 2018-2020.
- Lacrosse senior Halle Duenkel was the winner of the Yeardley Reynolds Love Unsung Hero Award recognizing the NCAA Division I player who help their teams achieve success beyond statistics. This honor places value on kindness and generosity, and exhibiting leadership as a positive role model while being involved in community service. She later added the IWLCA's national community awareness award.
- Field hockey senior Erica Royal and women's golf senior Morgan Cox represented JMU at the Athletic Leadership Connection Conference hosted by the Women's Sports Foundation in New York City.
- Football seniors Dylan Stapleton and Tabb Patrick were named to the National Football Foundation's Hampshire honor society for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher for their entire collegiate careers.
- 16 of 17 teams exceeded the department's APR benchmark of 960 with 12 programs matching or improving their mark from the previous year. Lacrosse and volleyball earned team APR recognition from the NCAA, the second ever for lacrosse and third for volleyball. As a conference, the CAA ranked third among all 32 Division I conferences.
- Football's Riley Stapleton served as one of two CAA representatives on the brand-new NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee Student-Athlete Connection Group
- As part of the Dukes Lead program, student-athletes set a department record with 6,482 hours of community volunteerism. JMU ranked eighth for community engagement among 112 Division I programs subscribing to the Helper-Helper app with top-10 finishes within their sport for field hockey (2), softball (3), women's golf (4), lacrosse (9), cheerleading (9) and volleyball (10).
- JMU Athletics began offering Cost of Attendance stipends to all incoming and returning student-athletes in Fall 2019.
- JMU continued growing its broadcast presence, managing its own production for six home football TV games on a combination of MASN, NBC Washington and SNY. JMU then added six basketball games for the first time ever, airing on MASN and SNY. Lacrosse vs Penn State was also televised. One additional lacrosse and two softball games were scheduled prior to the premature end to the year.
2019-2020 Award Lists
CAA Champions
- Football
- Men's Soccer
- Swimming & Diving
- Football
- Women's Basketball
- Cross Country
- Football
- Men's Soccer
- Swimming & Diving
- Manuel Ferriol – Men's Soccer
- Ron'Dell Carter – Football
- Liam Fornadel – Football
- Ben DiNucci – Football
- John Daka – Football
- Dimitri Holloway – Football
- D'Angelo Amos – Football
- Percy Agyei-Obese – Football
- Mac Patrick – Football
- Adam Smith – Football
- Ethan Ratke – Football
- Molly Dougherty – Lacrosse
- Rachel Matey – Lacrosse
- Bonnie Zhang – Swimming & Diving
- Julianna Jones – Swimming & Diving
- Sara Jubas – Softball
- Faith Anderson – Swimming & Diving
- Manuel Ferriol – Men's Soccer
- Ben DiNucci – Football Offensive
- Ron'Dell Carter – Football Defensive
- Kamiah Smalls – Women's Basketball
- Kayla Cooper-Williams – Women's Basketball Defensive
- Hope Byrum - Diving
- John Wolsh – Diving
- Kiki Jefferson – Women's Basketball
- Ron'Dell Carter – Football Defensive
- Kate Gordon – Softball
- Curt Cignetti - Football
- Sophia Davis - Volleyball
- Holden Koons – Men's Tennis
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