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Hello Cavalier fans, this is Monica Wright checking in with VirginiaSports.com to give you an update on the women’s basketball team as we prepare for our exhibition contest this Friday at John Paul Jones Arena. Tip-off is 7 p.m. against DT3 and I hope to see you all there!
We started practice on Oct. 17 so we are about two-and-a-half weeks in at this point. I feel like everyone is pretty anxious to get the season underway, and practice has been going really well. We are starting to polish our plays, build team chemistry and find our groove.
I can’t say I know too much about DT3, but they are a group of former collegiate players with obviously some experience. So far in this preseason they have played at Maryland and Richmond, so we are looking for a very intense game.
People seem to be talking a lot about the preseason polls, and Virginia is ranked No. 15 in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Top 25. We don’t necessarily pay much attention to those types of things, because we feel like we just need to focus on ourselves and take care of business. As for the rest of the poll, I didn’t see too much out of the ordinary, the ACC has a lot of schools ranked because the ACC is such a competitive conference.
I want to take a minute and talk a little bit about the injury to Paulisha Kellum. Pooh tore her ACL in the preseason and personally, I’ve been playing with her since middle school, either with her or against her. It is tough for me, not feeling her presence on the court during practice but I know she will keep her head up and support us in whatever way she can. We all love her!
Aisha Mohammed is another player I wanted to take a minute to shout out. I feel like Aisha is a player who is a little bit under the radar at this point. She is so solid and consistent in the post and teams will have to take a serious look at her when we play. So keep an eye’ on “Ai” this year!
On a different note, we all dressed up for Halloween last weekend and here were the costume highlights: I was a witch, Chelsea Shine was a cowgirl, Enong Stovall was Strawberry Shortcake and Britny and Whitny Edwards dressed as Venus and Serena Williams.
Hope to see you out at JPJ this Friday. Go Hoos!
Moni