National Girls And Women In Sports Day Set For Sunday at JPJA

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CHARLOTTESVILLE – The No. 22 Virginia women’s basketball team hosts Georgia Tech Sunday (Jan. 24) at 1 p.m., as part of National Girls And Women In Sports Day at UVa. Former Virginia All-American rower and Olympic gold medalist Lindsay Shoop will be honored as part of the celebration.

National Girls and Women in Sports Day brings national attention to the achievements of female athletes and to issues facing girls and women in sport. Sunday’s event is co-sponsored by the University of Virginia Athletic Department and the University of Virginia Women’s Center.

With the United States women’s eight at the 2009 World Championships in Poznan, Poland, Shoop and the U.S. crew won their fourth-consecutive gold medal. A gold medalist at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Shoop has rowed with the U.S. women’s eight and won a gold medal at four-straight international championships (2006 Worlds, 2007 Worlds, 2008 Olympics and 2009 Worlds). She was a two-time All-America selection at Virginia in 2003 and 2004.

Shoop will be recognized at halftime of the game.

Tickets to Sunday’s game may be purchased online at VirginiaSports.com, by phone at (800) 542-8821 or in person at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office in Bryant Hall at Scott Stadium Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The contest will be televised by the ACC’s Regional Sports Network (Comcast SportsNet in the Charlottesville area). Jenn Hildreth and LaChina Robinson are on the call. Additionally, the game will be broadcast over the airwaves on WINA 1070 in the Charlottesville area with Jay James (play-by-play), Myrson Ripley (color analyst) and Larry Johnson (statistician) calling the action. Live statistics and live audio (V Pass) are available at VirginiaSports.com.

Virginia (13-5, 2-2 ACC) is coming off of a 70-68 win at Boston College on Thursday Jan. 21. ACC Preseason Player of the Year and Associated Press Preseason All-American Monica Wright (Woodbridge, Va.) led the Cavaliers with a career-high 39 points and moved into eighth place on the ACC’s all-time scoring list. UVa’s all-time scoring leader, Wright broke Dawn Staley’s school record of 2,135 points earlier this season and now has 2,206 points for her career.

In 18 games this season, Wright has 11 20+ point games and four 30+ point games. Her 39 points against BC tied for the second-highest total in school history (the UVa school record is 48 points) and is the highest scoring game by an ACC player this year.

She leads the team by averaging 22.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Her scoring average leads the ACC and ranks No. 12 in the nation. With 3.8 steals per game, Wright leads the conference in that category and is third in the nation.

As a team, Virginia averages 12.8 steals per game, which ranks 10th in the nation.

Chelsea Shine (Wayne, Pa.) is averaging 8.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, while fellow sophomore Whitny Edwards (Charlotte, N.C.) is averaging 7.7 ppg and 4.6 rpg.

Georgia Tech (16-4, 2-2 ACC) is coming off of a 77-51 loss at Boston College on Jan. 17 and an 80-51 victory over Savannah State on Jan. 21. The Yellow Jackets are led by Brigitte Ardossi, who averages 14.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.

Georgia Tech is averaging 69.6 points per game while holding opponents to 56.3 points per game. Head coach Machelle Joseph is in her seventh year at Georgia Tech and has compiled a 122-80 record.

Virginia leads the all-time series with Georgia Tech, 51-10, including a dominating 26-1 advantage in Charlottesville. The only Georgia Tech victory on Virginia’s home court was on Feb. 8, 2001 at University Hall (87-70).