Hokies’ Kitley, 3-time ACC Player Of The Year, Says She’s Out For NCAA Tournament

BLACKSBURG, Va.: Three-time Atlantic Coast Conference participant of the 12 months Elizabeth Kitley of Virginia Tech will miss the Women’s NCAA Tournament, she introduced Thursday on social media.

Kitley, a second-team All American and the Hokies’ high scorer and rebounder, sustained a torn ACL in Virginia Tech’s last common season sport at Virginia.

The 6-foot-6 heart averaged 22.8 factors on 55.6% taking pictures, 11.4 rebounds and simply over two blocks this season.

“This is not at all how I anticipated ending this year with my team,” she mentioned within the put up on Instagram.

Coach Kenny Brooks known as the time since Kitley’s harm emotionally “one of the most trying couple weeks of my life, for the kids as well, just because of what she means to us.”

Kitley, he mentioned, has “been emotional. I’ve been emotional. I think we probably text each other probably 30 times a day. She will be good and then she will be sad. The kid has put everything into this and she’s the reason we are here. She’s the reason we are here. … The kid ate, slept, drank basketball.”

Virginia Tech, seeded fourth this 12 months after reaching the Final Four for the primary time final 12 months, will face Marshall in its opening sport on Friday at Cassell Coliseum.

Kitley’s absence will put elevated stress on guard Georgia Amoore, a third-team All-American, the staff’s second main scorer at 19.2 ppg and high playmaker with just below seven assists per sport, in addition to Olivia Summiel, who has averaged 13 rebounds within the two video games Kitley has already missed.

Summiel doesn’t rating like Kitley, averaging simply 3.7 factors, however the switch from Wake Forest “had a couple of really big double digit rebounding games where she might have had only eight points, six points. But she knows her role, she’s comfortable with it, and she’s so valuable to us,” Amoore mentioned.

“Mindset has stayed very much the same all the year, regardless of who we’re playing, where we’re playing at, what kind of stakes are at with us,” Amoore mentioned Thursday. “So our mindset, it’s been pretty solid and been pretty consistent the whole year so we haven’t really been focused on that.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and protection: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)