Virginia Tech Hamstrung Hokie Heroes
Elizabeth Kitley, 2024
During the 2022-23 women’s basketball season, the Hokies made a historic run by winning an ACC championship for the first time in program history and earning a bid to the Women’s Final Four as a 1-seed. Leading that effort was Liz Kitley, who earned ACC Player of the Year honors while averaging nearly 19 points and 11 rebounds a game, good for 18 double-doubles on the season.
Needless to say, the 6-foot-6 phenom was dominant and helped propel the Hokies to unparalleled success. While Kitley easily could have ended her college career and joined the professional ranks, she instead chose to remain at Virginia Tech for one final season. Together, with sharpshooting guards Georgia A’Moore and Kayla King, coach Kenny Brooks’ squad looked poised to defend their ACC title and contend for a national championship in the 2023-24 campaign.
Despite dropping early season games to national powerhouses in Iowa and LSU, the Hokies put together a stellar regular season and once again earned the top spot in the conference tournament with several games left on their schedule.
Kitley again was voted the ACC’s Player of the Year, becoming just the third player in the league’s history to win the award in three consecutive seasons, according to the ACC. During their March 3rd matchup against the Virginia Cavaliers, Kitley went up for a layup and was fouled, suffering a knee injury that ended her season. The #5 ranked Hokies went on to lose the game 80-75.
Kitley’s injury could not have come at a more inopportune time. Not only were the Hokies ranked inside the top-10 nationally, but Kitley was having another banner season, averaging nearly 23 points and 12 rebounds a game. During the ACC tournament, the Hokies managed to beat Miami by eight in their opening game but later lost to Notre Dame in the semi-finals by nearly 20 points. The now-Kitley-less 4-seed Hokies’ season ended after a 75-72 loss in Cassell Coliseum to Baylor.
Many Hokies fans will look back on Liz Kitley’s injury and think “What could have been?” They’d be right to do so. She’s a Virginia Tech legend and is certain to be a Hall of Fame inductee. In fact, she ranks first all-time in Virginia Tech history in points, rebounds, field goal percentage, and blocks, and is the only woman in ACC history to score 2,500 points and grab 1,500 rebounds. At the time of her injury, she was as dominant as she had been in her entire career.
Her teammates were also playing lights-out basketball. During the UVA loss at the end of the 2024 regular season, Georgia A’Moore notched 39 points, tying the ACC’s record for most points scored in a single game. Backup center Clara Strack and guard Kayla King also were coming into their own. Up to this point, despite some late-season stumbles in ACC play, all signs pointed to the Hokies playing their best basketball in the ACC tournament and into the Big Dance. The way the 2023-24 season ended will surely be a bitter pill for Hokies fans to swallow for the foreseeable future, as one of the school’s greatest to ever do it almost took her team all the way, but one crucial injury took it all away.