Wake Forest Athletics
Deacon Sports Xtra: Wake Forest Athletics 2023-24 Year In Review
8/7/2024 8:00:00 AM | Baseball, Cross Country, Field Hockey, Football, General, Men's Basketball, Men's Golf, Men's Soccer, Men's Tennis, Track and Field, Women's Basketball, Women's Golf, Women's Soccer, Women's Tennis, Women's Volleyball
Multiple championships and countless memories highlighted a successful 2023-24 season.
Winston-Salem, N.C. – The 2023-24 academic year brought forth many memorable moments for Wake Forest Athletics, highlighted by multiple ACC Championships for both teams and individuals, record attendances, and an incredible run by the men's tennis team to reach the NCAA Tournament semifinals.
Led by senior Fillipo Moroni, as well as the second-ranked doubles team in the country in Holden Koons and DK Suresh Ekambaram, the men's tennis team put together one of their most successful seasons in program history. The Demon Deacons went 31-7 during the regular season, including a dominant 18-1 at home, to earn the sixth overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, and host both the Regional and Super Regional rounds in Winston-Salem.
The Demon Deacons would defeat Stanford 4-1 in the Winston-Salem Super Regional to advance to the Elite 8 for just the fourth time in school history. In the Elite 8, Wake Forest would defeat ACC foe and two-time defending National Champion Virginia 4-1 to earn a spot in the semifinal round for just the third time in school history and the first since 2019. The men's tennis team would fall short of a spot in the NCAA Championship match, losing to Texas in the semifinals to wrap up an electric season.
Additionally, the women's golf team continued their recent run of success, as they became the first school to win both the ACC team and individual titles in the same season since 2019. 2024 ACC Scholar Athlete of the Year and Marge Crisp Award recipient Rachel Kuehn ended her stellar career by winning both the ACC and NCAA Regional titles, as the Wake Forest women's golf team advanced to the NCAA Championships for the 20th time in program history. Kim Lewellen also brought home her third ACC Coach of the Year award during her tenure at Wake Forest, while freshman Macy Pate was named ACC Freshman of the Year to cap off a successful 2023-24 campaign.
Coming into the season as the unanimous preseason No. 1 team in the country, the Wake Forest baseball team experienced record breaking attendances for the second consecutive season. Throughout the season, 76,888 Demon Deacon fans and 8,034 students made their way to David F. Couch ballpark to see head coach Tom Walter's squad, smashing the 2023 season's record of 48,766 attendees. On the field, the Demon Deacons would go 38-22 and make the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row. Junior Chase Burns broke the Wake Forest single-season strikeout record and was named ACC Pitcher of the Year and a unanimous First Team All-American. Wake Forest also became the second school in history to ever have three top-10 selections in the same MLB draft, as Burns went No. 2, All-American Nick Kurtz was selected No. 4, and Seaver King was picked 10th overall.
Academically, a school record 339 Wake Forest student-athletes were named to the 2023-24 Atlantic Coast Conference Honor Roll, which marks the fifth consecutive year in which the Demon Deacons have landed more than 280 student-athletes on the ACC Honor Roll. Wake Forest also produced two ACC Scholar Athletes of the Year, as both Rachel Kuehn and Garrison Tubbs won the award for women's golf and men's soccer respectively.
Most importantly, 113 student-athletes crossed the stage as graduates of Wake Forest University!
About Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University is a combination of world-class academics, unrivaled campus experience, intimate learning environment and intercollegiate athletics in a top-growing metro market. A Charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Demon Deacons have won 57 conference titles and are one of only seven ACC schools to win 10 or more national championships, along with Notre Dame, North Carolina, Virginia, Duke, Syracuse and Florida State. Additionally, Wake Forest anchors the Winston-Salem and Triad DMA which includes 1.3 million residents and is ESPN's seventh-best national viewership market.
Wake Forest has been the fastest growing and hottest brand since Aug, 1, 2019, with a 115 percent growth in our fanbase during this span. There are 2.7 million people identifying as Wake Forest fans, which ranks ninth in the league and ahead of Virginia Tech and just trailing NC State.
Founded in 1834, Wake Forest University is a highly ranked academic institution that offers 50-plus majors, 60-plus minors, and an 11-to-1 student-to-faculty ratio. Wake Forest's comprehensive excellence includes its highly regarded and competitive schools of medicine, business, divinity and law. Additionally, Wake Forest maintains campuses across Winston-Salem, Charlotte, and Washington, DC with students from around the world enrolled in our academic offerings across the southeast.
Learn more about Wake Forest University at www.wfu.edu and at GoDeacs.com.
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