"They want to win"

Since joining the UAA as a founding member in 1986, the Emory Eagles have had a great deal of on-the-field success, capturing thirty-five conference titles and making seventy-six appearances in NCAA national team tournaments. This year is shaping up to be no exception: Emory teams had their most successful fall, as the men's and women's soccer teams and the volleyball team had a combined 53-23-2 record; the women's soccer team qualified for the NCAA national tournament; the men's soccer team won its first UAA title outright; and the women's cross country team won its fifth consecutive NCAA regional championship.

According to Athletics and Recreation Director Chuck Gordon, the drive to succeed among Emory's student athletes comes from within. "Most of our students have been highly successful in everything they've ever done, and they come from successful athletic programs," he says. "They've obviously been very successful students, and they want to win. They're not investing the time they have to invest each week in their sport to lose. If you're going to invest hundreds of hours face down in the pool as a distance freestyler, you want to do well when you finally race, and you want to go to nationals and try to be an All-American. Just doing it for the sake of personal satisfaction for completing the event probably doesn't cut it with most of our kids. They want more than that.

"I don't think the University puts any pressure on a coach or a team to strive to reach a certain level, but I think the team does. No one has ever told a coach here they have to be the first one to bring back a national championship. I think it's internal. I think it comes from having a group of highly motivated, highly successful student athletes who will strive for those same goals. They want to be successful. They want to win."

What follows is a year-by-year list of Emory's UAA titles since the conference was formed a decade ago:

1987-88: men's and women's tennis

1988-89: men's basketball, women's cross country, women's tennis

1989-90: men's basketball, men's soccer, men's and women's tennis, women's outdoor track

1990-91: men's and women's tennis, women's swimming

1991-92: men's and women's tennis, women's swimming

1992-93: golf, men's soccer, men's and women's tennis, women's swimming, women's outdoor track

1993-94: baseball, men's and women's tennis, women's outdoor track

1994-95: baseball, golf, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's indoor track, women's soccer, women's swimming

1995-96: men's soccer (at press time)

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