16 Inside Hokie Sports As the 2022-2023 Virginia Tech women’s basketball season comes to a close, it marks the end of one of the greatest teams that Hokie fans have ever gotten to see represent their school across any sport. Dr. Seuss said it best: “don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” I got asked to write a piece of about 800-1000 words to recap the season that it was for the Hokies. Seems easy enough, right? There were so many moments that will be cherished for decades to follow. This should be easy, Evan! However, I sat in front of my computer for about 20 minutes without even being able to type a word. How do you summarize the impact that this group had on thousands of people? So many games and individual plays come flooding to my mind when I think back on the season. The unbeaten record in non-conference play, the win in Knoxville against one of the most storied programs in college basketball in Tennessee (foreshadowing to another big win against them in March!), Georgia Amoore becoming the first player in program history to record a triple-double, the Liz Kitley buzzer-beater at North Carolina in the same game she became the all-time leading scorer, Kitley winning back-to-back ACC Player of the Year awards, the ACC Championship, the first-ever one seed in the NCAA Tournament and the memorable run to the first Final Four in school history, that included the first and second rounds in Blacksburg for the first time in nearly two decades. Trust me, I’m leaving out many other accomplishments that were achieved this season. There’s only so much room for the column! All of what was just listed is not just special. It’s iconic. The ACC Championship was one of the toughest ever won in the last 20 years because of how deep the conference was this season. The journey to get there? Incredible. Following a tough loss to Duke on January 26th, the Hokies played some of their best basketball of the season and won the next eight regular-season games. They beat North Carolina State twice, Florida State, Syracuse, Duke and North Carolina in that stretch. All were double digit wins, outside of the buzzer-beater against the Tar Heels. Impressive beyond measure, with many of those teams ranked; In the ACC Tournament, you get paired up with three of the most physical basketball teams in the conference in Miami, Duke and Louisville. They won by 26 points against the Hurricanes, 21 points against the Blue Devils and 8 points against the Cardinals. Two of those teams made the Elite 8. The other was minutes away from a Sweet 16. It was a dominant showing in Greensboro against some of the very best the ACC has to offer. After two wins against Chattanooga and South Dakota State, the Hokies had punched their first ticket to the Sweet 16 since 1999. The opponent? The Tennessee Volunteers, who knocked Tech out of the tournament 24 years ago in that very same Sweet 16. Jordan Horston, a projected top five pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft, had been playing some of her best basketball of her career, as was Rickea Jackson, who averaged over 18 points per game. This game, to me, showcased what has made this Tech team special all season: it’s character and unique bond on the floor. The Hokies led by as many as 18 points in the second-half. Amoore ended up with a career-high 29 points. It looked as if Tech may run away with it. Then Tennessee came roaring back and made it a one-possession game in the fourth quarter. As loud as the Hokie faithful was at Climate Pledge Arena, so was the raucous Volunteers crowd. One-possession basketball game. You’ve given up a double-digit lead. All the momentum with the team that has been to the Sweet 16 a total of 36 times. What did the Hokies do? They stood tall in the face of adversity and showed was true resilience looks like. Tech never relinquished the lead and hung on to win by nine points. For me, that’s one of the biggest moments of the season. Many teams would have folded in that moment. But not this team. It could’ve been so easy to give up the lead and fall in that game. Everything was going Tennessee’s way after the brought out the full court press. But this Tech team had no quit in them. It showed on the biggest of stages. It turned out to be one of the defining moments of the amazing season. It propelled them to a win against Ohio State in the Elite Eight and that coveted Final Four appearance that will be talked about for decades to follow. I bring up the Sweet 16 when Tennessee was on that run because it perfectly ties together my thoughts on the 2022-2023 Virginia Tech women’s basketball season: it was the people that made it special. The special bond that Tech had off the floor prepared them for the toughest of moments on the floor. It starts at the top with Coach Brooks. He deserves immense credit for the job he’s done on the floor but even more so, off the floor. I’ve never been around a team that loves each other and everyone in the program, from top to bottom, like this group of Hokies. This season that Tech had could not have happened to a better and more deserving group of people. Consider some of the key players on the team and what they had to sacrifice to get to this stage. Georgia Amoore: took a huge leap of faith to leave Australia, commit to a place she had never been to before in Blacksburg, Va., enroll in January of 2020 only to have the pandemic hit and not see her family from that point until December of 2021. Kayana Traylor: An All-Big 10 performer who was one of the top scoring options on a solid Purdue squad. She could have stayed there the rest of her career, but she wanted to win. She was willing to be put in whatever role Coach Brooks needed her to be in, regardless if that was a starting role or coming off the bench. Her points per game averages decreased. She didn’t care, because all she wanted to do was win. The same goes for Taylor Soule. An All-ACC performer for two years at Boston College, where she was one of the top scoring options for the Eagles. She sacrificed her averages because she wanted to win. D’asia Gregg started her career at Georgia Tech, then transferred to Gulf Coast State College and then transferred to Virginia Tech in the midst of the pandemic. She worked for three years to get to the History, WITNESSING Courtside Evan Hughes By
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