RADFORD -- On Wednesday, RU hosted a banquet in the Dedmon Center to commemorate the recent Big South championships won by its men’s basketball, women’s soccer and men’s tennis teams.

The event, the first of its kind, featured a program including presentations by President Penelope W. Kyle and athletic director Robert Lineburg, along with video tributes to the RU teams who captured conference championships during the 2008-09 season. The event was emceed by Chuck Hayes.

The 2008-09 men’s basketball season began with a feel of the past as the Highlanders played their first nine home games in the 500-seat Peters Hall before concluding the campaign in front of a school-record 20,226 fans in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Greensboro, N.C., against the eventual national champion North Carolina Tar Heels. Second-year head coach Brad Greenberg led his club to the biggest turnaround in league history and RU claimed its fourth Big South regular season title and just its second tournament crown in school history. After leading his club to the 2009 NCAA Tournament, Greenberg and members of the men’s basketball team earned a number of postseason awards.

Radford women’s soccer recorded one of the best seasons in school history in 2008, winning its third Big South Championship and making its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance. Under the direction of 13-year head coach and 2008 VA SID coach of the year Ben Sohrabi, the Highlanders tied a school record with a 7-0-3 start, posted its first ever win over in-state foe Old Dominion and were ranked as high as 11th in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Under the direction of four-time Big South coach of the year Mike Anderson, the Radford men’s tennis team has burst onto the national stage in 2008. Along with climbing to a school and conference-best 46th in the national rankings, the three-time defending Big South Champions have won four straight regular season titles, 42 of their last 46 regular season matches, while losing just one Big South duel in the last four years. With its win over James Madison University, a 7-0 blanking of the Dukes, to close the regular season, Radford ran its home winning streak to 34 consecutive matches and has not lost a home match in five years.