Many Virginia Tech fans were surprised to hear pregame against Virginia that 2021-22 ACC Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley was out due to an ankle sprain that she suffered in practice earlier this week as reported by Tech Sideline's David Cunningham and others.
However, the Hokies rallied without her and Ashley Owusu (who remains out due to a hand injury suffered against Nebraska earlier this season) beating Virginia 74-66 to hand the Cavaliers only their second loss of the season and improve to 13-2 in the process. Tech's trio of healthy stars who earned All-ACC and All-B1G honors previously stepped up with Georgia Amoore having 22 points, Taylor Soule having 18 points and 10 rebounds, and Kayana Traylor adding 15 points.
Following the victory over UVA, VT head coach Kenny Brooks provided an update on the status of Kitley sharing some insight on the decision for her to not play tonight plus where things stand regarding her status for this Sunday's game at Miami.
"Hindsight is 20/20 but the fact that we were able to rest her and still get a win, and that she didn't have to pound on her leg (is a plus)," Brooks said. "She went through shootaround today gingerly, and I made the decision to hold her out. We know we have a lot of basketball left, and we hope that she is going to be able to play (against Miami), but we'll evaluate her again tomorrow. She's gotten a lot better everyday since it happened so we're hoping that will continue."
The Hokies showed tonight that they can adapt without Kitley (and Owusu) with a talented starting 5 of Amoore, Soule, Traylor, D'Asia Gregg, and Cayla King that on its own is a top 15-25 starting lineup in the country.
Depth is a concern though as the Hokies stretched their bench to get Taylor Geiman to playing almost 18 minutes and Clara Ford having a brief first quarter stint, but Tech got creative in how they rested players and how they shifted point guard Georgia Amoore off the ball at times to give her a break from being on the ball. The Hokies also ran a lot of zone which you can likely more of going forward while Kitley and Owusu are out to help manage this team's energy given the depth limitations.
