Over the 10 days leading into the women's basketball NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Sunday night, the odds were stacked against Virginia Tech to make another appearance in the 68-team field. They had a rough February with losses to Syracuse, Stanford, and Boston College, then were routed by Georgia Tech by 15 points in the second round of the ACC Tournament two weeks ago.
In the end, the committee decided to go with three Ivy League teams, Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton, which meant the Hokies were the 69th and first team out of the field. Virginia Tech coach Megan Duffy posted on her X account about no excuses.
“While we were disappointed not to hear our name, we understood the process,” said Duffy on Tuesday. “I think we had a committee that was doing everything in their power to do the right thing and put the best teams in the field, and we were taking that accountability with whatever happened, we were going to be ready to move forward.”
Moving forward they will be beginning Thursday night as the top seed in the WBIT. They will host North Carolina A&T at 6 o'clock and this will be a valuable game and possibly more if they win with a young team gaining experience going into next season.
Baseball routs VCU
After dropping two out of three games last weekend at North Carolina State, the Hokies baseball team returned to Blacksburg to host VCU on Tuesday afternoon. Virginia Tech fell behind 1-0 after a leadoff home run for the Rams, but the rest as wall Tech who rolled to a 13-2 victory.
After Jacob Lee gave VCU a quick lead with a lead-off homer, the Hokies pounded out 13 hits over six innings in a game that was stopped by the run rule. Jared Davis had a two-run home run for Virginia Tech (14-7), who also got two hits from Anderson French (three RBIs) and Cam Pittman (RBI). The Hokies will welcome Louisville, a Top 25 team, this weekend for a three-game ACC series.
Virginia Tech softball collects honors
After sweeping Louisville over the weekend on the road, the Hokies softball team returns home to host Longwood for a doubleheader on Wednesday. Tuesday, Virginia Tech picked up some honors with Michelle Chatfield earning ACC Player of the Week honors with seven hits, four home runs and seven runs driven in. Pitcher Emma Lemley earned ACC Pitcher of the Week honors again after firing a no-hitter against Kentucky last week.