Before, we move forward with new interviews and content in 2019, we wanted to reflect on our own list of the Top 5 upsets in sports from 2018. Our lineup reflects teams and individuals from all different ends of the sports landscape.
Be sure to review our rankings below and tweet your thoughts to us at https://twitter.com/SidelinetoStage.
UMBC UPSET FOR THE AGES
In an unanimous decision, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Retrievers upset of the University of Virginia Cavaliers by an astounding twenty points is our hands down winner. Before the March Madness game, No. 1 seeds in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament had a record of 135–0 against No. 16s, making this particular scenario one of the last frontiers of dreamed about sports surprises. The Retrievers ran away from the Cavaliers and into the record book with a 74-54 triumph.
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
As a close runner up to the top spot, the inaugural season in Las Vegas went better than expected for the group of misfits that made up the Las Vegas Golden Knights. In their inaugural season the Golden Knights took hockey fans and experts by storm, as they crushed expectations all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. It was a “Viva Las Vegas” party for this new franchise.
SERENA WILLIAMS UPSET
Naomi Osaka won her first Grand Slam title Saturday, beating Serena Williams in a controversial US Open final. Osaka prevailed against her idol 6-2, 6-4 in New York to deny Williams a record 24th major and become the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam singles title.
SOUTH KOREA DEFEATS GERMANY
2018 was a World Cup year and in the lead up to the tournament, fans of World Champions Germany were pretty confident that they had the team to make a deep run.
Germany had made at least the semi-finals of every major tournament in the previous decade and many critics had already penciled Germany’s name into the semis this year. But for the first time in history, Germany was eliminated from the group stages after losing to Mexico and South Korea.
OLD DOMINION FOOTBALL
Old Dominion was an 0-3 Conference USA team whose early 2018 losses were to Liberty, FIU, and Charlotte, before their match up with the Virginia Tech Hokies. As 29-ish-point underdogs, the Monarchs will go atop the list of the biggest point-spread underdogs to win an FBS game this year. Old Dominion took home the victory over the Hokies 49 – 35.
