Virginia Tech Women's Basketball Rises to 18th in the AP Poll, Beats North Carolina To Open ACC Play

[caption id="attachment_4742" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Regan Magarity and the Hokies started off ACC play with a win over UNC. [Credit: Harley Taylor][/caption]The Kenny Brooks era has gotten off to a fantastic start with the Virginia Tech Hokies going undefeated in non-conference play and rising well into the top 25 this season. The Hokies made one more jump in the top 25 before opening ACC play and while VT's football program didn't have a great day, the women's basketball team definitely did.

Virginia Tech Rises to 18th in the AP Poll

Virginia Tech continues their rise in the AP Poll as they jumped one spot this past week in the AP Poll from 19th to 18th. The Hokies have been one of the biggest surprises in women's college basketball this year and are one of only three undefeated teams remaining, though the other two are ranked much higher with UCONN being ranked first and Mississippi State being ranked fourth. The Hokies may be significantly lower than the other two ranked teams, but if Virginia Tech can continue their long winning streak with a strong start to ACC play, they will be on the rise up the polls quite quickly.

#18 Virginia Tech Beats North Carolina 76-68

The Virginia Tech Hokies faced one of their toughest challenges of the season so far at home in their ACC opener against the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Tar Heels gave the Hokies a tough challenge, but the Hokies proved to be the better team and continued their impressive, undefeated start. Virginia Tech beat North Carolina 76-68 led by Regan Magarity who had arguably the best performance of her career with 24 points on 9-for-15 shooting plus 17 rebounds and 4 blocks in what was a standout performance for the redshirt sophomore forward. Meanwhile, her frontcourt partner was also quite good as Sidney Cook had 16 points, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocks as Virginia Tech's frontcourt proved critical to get the win. Chanette Hicks had a double-double as well with 10 points and 10 assists plus 2 steals while Sami Hill had 14 points and 6 rebounds with Vanessa Panousis having 9 points and Kendyl Brooks being the only bench player to score with 3 points. Bench depth does seem to be an issue for the Hokies still, but Virginia Tech has a very strong start 5 with a strong frontcourt duo that can take over games and a point guard that knows how to set up her teammates. Virginia Tech travels to Clemson on Sunday and if they can get a win over the Tigers, the Hokies seemed likely to take a significant jump in the AP top 25 due to how this would give them two quality ACC wins to go with their solid non-conference resume that's headlined by wins over Tennessee and Auburn.

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