No. 22 Women's Basketball Hosts Georgia Tech

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January 14, 1999

Georgia Tech (9-6, 2-4) at#22 Virginia (10-4, 4-1)

Charlottesville, Va.
Univeristy Hall (8,457)

TV: none
Radio: WKAV-1400 AM

The Cavaliers hope to notch their fifth ACC win tonight when they host Georgia Tech. Virginia has won seven of its last nine games. The Cavaliers are 7-1 at home this season.

Georgia Tech enters the game on a three-game losing skid. The Yellow Jackets have had four days rest since their 61-56 loss at home vs. Clemson on Jan. 10. Virginia is the third straight ranked opponent Tech faces (#13 Duke on Jan. 7 and #12 Clemson on Jan. 10).

Virginia posted its fourth ACC win with a 66-46 victory at N. C. State on Monday and ended the Wolfpack’s five-game winnign streak. Virginia now has three of some of its toughest road games out of the wayDuke, Clemson and N.C. Stateand they came home with two wins and a loss. But Virginia can’t look past the road games at Georgia Tech (two straight losses in Atlanta), Florida State (overtime win last year) and of course, North Carolina (triple-overtime win last year). The Cavaliers do not hit the road again until the Jan. 22 contest at Florida State.

DeMya Walker continues to lead the team in scoring (15.4 ppg), rebounding (8.2 rpg), assists (2.9 apg) and blocked shots (2.8 bpg). Erin Stovall has moved into second place in scoring (15.1 ppg) while Monick Foote ranks third (13.4 ppg).

DeMya Walker, Erin Stovall, Monick Foote and Lesley Brown account for 64 percent of the offense. This group collectively averages 50.7 of the 78.2 points the Cavaliers put on the scoreboard.

Series with Georgia Tech
This is the 43rd meeting between Georgia Tech and Virginia and the Cavaliers lead the series 38-4. Virginia has won 21 of the last 23 contests between the two teams. The Yellow Jackets have never been victorious in 19 tries at University Hall.

How the Teams Match Up

                                      Virginia   Georgia TechPoints              78.2   77.2   Points Allowed   63.1   67.8   Rebounds         39.5   44.9   Rebound Margin   +1.6   +6.5   FG %             .444   .444   FG% defense      .390   .383   3-pt FG %        .289   .327   FT %             .690   .663   Assists          14.4   14.3   Turnovers        16.9   19.9   Blocks            5.6    2.4   Steals           11.1    8.7

Ryan Nears 500
Head Coach Debbie Ryan needs only nine wins to reach the 500-win mark for her career. Ryan has averaged 23 wins per season and enters her 22nd season with a career and Virginia record of 491-168.

In the Polls
The Cavaliers have been ranked every week in either the AP or USA Today poll since Jan. 8, 1984. The Cavaliers have been ranked a total of 272 consecutive weeks in one or both of the polls.

Virginia holds the longest active streak of any ACC team in the AP poll174 weeks. The Cavaliers have been ranked 252 consecutive weeks in the USA Today poll.

Stovall Scorching the Nets
Erin Stovall has opened the new year with a scoring blitz. The 5-9 sophomore scored a career-high 26 points in the win at Clemson (Jan. 2) and followed that with a 25 point performance in the loss at Duke (Jan. 4). Stovall was named the ACC Player of the Week (Jan. 4) for her performance and she is the first player since the 1996-97 season to score 25 or more points in back-to-back games (DeMya Walker). Stovall scored 14 points in the win over Maryland (Jan. 8) and connected on a team-high 19 points in the win at N.C. State. Stovall scored eight points in a 12-1 run in the second half that put the game out of reach for the Wolfpack. She is averaging 21.0 points in the four games this month.

Ryan Tries New Line-up vs. Maryland
Coach Ryan mixed things up with the starting line-up vs. Maryland on Jan. 8. Katie Tracy made her first career-start at point guard and she joined Svetlana Volnaya, Lesley Brown, DeMya Walker and Erin Stovall in the line-up. After the game when asked about her new line-up Ryan said, “I’m not real sure what I’m going to do with the line-up. I wasn’t real happy with the way we started tonight.”

This was the fifth new line-up Ryan has experimented with. The starting line-up of Volnaya, Lisa Hosac, Walker, Stovall and Robinson is 2-0 this season while the line-up of Volnaya, Hosac, Walker, Robinson and Foote is 4-2. Walker is the only player to have started every game this season. Stovall has only started six games, but the Cavaliers are 5-1 in those games.

On the Boards
There is a direct correlation between rebounding and winning. When the Cavaliers outrebound their opponent, they are 8-0. When the Cavaliers are outrebounded, they are 2-4. The win at Clemson was the first time this season the Cavaliers pulled out a win with fewer rebounds than the opponent (45-53). The Cavaliers squeezed out a win over Maryland on Friday despite being outrebounded 41-37.

DeMya Walker leads the team in rebounding with 8.2 rebounds per game followed by Lesley Brown with 4.6 boards per game.

Cavs Start Off the New Year vs. Ranked Opponents
The 22nd-ranked Cavaliers opened the new year with a win at #10 Clemson, 67-66 in overtime and a loss at #13 Duke 84-68. These were the first ranked teams the Cavaliers faced this season.

The last time Virginia faced back-to-back ranked opponents on the road was in February, 1997 when the Cavaliers defeated #22 Duke 86-56 (Feb. 19, 1997) in Durham and lost to #4 North Carolina 70-65 in Chapel Hill. The Cavaliers were ranked 11th at the time.

Last season, Virginia played #24 Duke on the road and #3 Old Dominion at a neutral site and lost both games.

Stovall Leads Virginia to Win Over Clemson
Erin Stovall, in only her third start of the season, scored a career-high 26 points to lead #22 Virginia to a 67-66 win over #10 Clemson on Jan. 2. Monick Foote sank two free throws with 22 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Cavaliers to the win. DeMya Walker was held to only two points for 34:30 of the game but scored five points in the final 5:30 of regulation. With each field goal in the last 5:30, she tied the game. Walker then scored four of Virginia’s eight points in overtime.

The Cavaliers desperately needed the win to stay in the national rankings and continue its streak of appearing in the AP and USA Today polls.

Duo Combines For Best Shooting Performance
DeMya Walker and Lesley Brown shot a combined 17-17 (1.000) in Virginia’s 102-44 win over Towson on Dec. 11 and recorded the top shooting performance in UVa history. Walker tied Wendy Palmer for the best individual shooting performance in school history with her 9-9 shooting from the field. Brown’s 8-8 performance from the field completed the best shooting performance by a duo in any single game in UVa history.

In Palmer’s 9-9 effort vs. Cleveland State on Nov. 29, 1995, Monick Foote was 5-5 from the field.

In the Towson game, Virginia shot 61.5 percent (40-65) the highest field goal percentage since Jan. 25, 1994 when the team shot 65.5 percent vs. Duke (36-55).

Foote Scores 1000th Career Point
Monick Foote scored the 1000th point of her career with a 17-foot jump shot at the 10:03 mark of the first half vs. West Virginia on Nov. 15. She became the 17th player in Virginia history to reach the 1000-point plateau.

Walker Ranks Sixth In Career Rebounds
DeMya Walker continues to climb up the chart in career rebounds. The 6-3 senior has a career average of 7.5 rebounds per game and 795 total for her career. She needs 33 more to move ahead of Dawn Bryant in fifth place.

             Reb.   Player (years)                G   1.  1221   Wendy Palmer (1993-96)       126   2.   955   Heather Burge (1990-93)      135   3.   932   Cathy Grimes (1982-85        114   4.   853   Heidi Burge (1990-93)        134   5.   827   Dawn Bryant (1986-89)        123   6.   801   DeMya Walker (1996-present ) 107   7.   772   Dawn Staley (1990-92)        131

Foote and Stovall Moving Up Charts in 3-Point Shooting
Monick Foote and Erin Stovall are becoming one of the most deadly three-point shooting combos in UVa history since Foote teamed with Tora Suber several years ago. Foote needs only three more treys to move into second place all-time in the three-point field goals made, ahead of Tammi Reiss. Stovall who connected on 32 trifectas last season, holds onto ninth place with 54 career three-pointers.

       3FGM   Player (years)                 Att.   1.   220   Tora Suber (1994-97)           666   2.   139   Tammi Reiss (1989-92)          334   3.   137   Monick Foote (1995-present)    379   4.   134   Dena Evans (1990-93)           370   5.   131   Dawn Staley (1989-92)          371   6.    91   Kate Mooney (1995-present**)   282   6.    91   Mimi McKinney (1995-98 )       288   8.    64   Kathy McConnell (1987-89)      210   9.    57   Erin Stovall (1997-present)    201   10.   49   Donna Holt (1987-88)           128

**redshirting the 1999 season

Walker Ranks Third in ACC in Career Blocked Shots
DeMya Walker is approaching another milestone in her UVa career. She currently ranks third in the ACC with 285 career blocked shots. She needs 14 blocks to move into second place ahead of Peggy Caple (Clemson, 1982-85) who recorded 298 blocked shots in her career. The all-time leader in the ACC is Dawn Royster of North Carolina (1984-87) who tallied 329 blocked shots in her career.

        Player, team          Years    GP    Blk   Avg.   1.   Dawn Royster (UNC)    1984-87  110   329   3.0   2.   Peggy Caple (Clemson) 1982-85  119   298   2.5   3.   DeMya Walker (UVa.)   1996-    107   286   2.7