Hokie ClubBracket
GREENSBORO – Virginia Tech's starting five; Taja Cole, Dara Mabrey, Aisha Sheppard, Lydia Rivers and Elizabeth Kitley all earned ACC Academic Team honors Tuesday the league office announced. For Mabrey, it is her second consecutive inclusion on the Academic Team, and for the rest of the Hokies, it is their first such honor.
Cole, Sheppard and Kitley have each made headlines earlier in the week with their ACC awards with Cole earning All-Defensive Team honors as well as Honorable Mention and Sheppard making the league's first team after leading the conference in 3-point shooting. Kitley, a center earned All-Freshman Team honors and became the first ACC Freshman of the Year winner in program history on Tuesday.
Mabrey started all 29 contests this season, averaging 11.9 points and 2.7 rebounds. She finished the regular season with 71 3's, the seventh-highest single-season total in school history. Her .362 percentage from beyond the arc ranked fourth in the conference. The Belmar, New Jersey native is seventh in program history with 151 3-pointers.
Rivers, a grad transfer was inserted into the starting lineup in late November and has been Tech's leading rebounder all season long and ranked seventh in the conference at 8.1 rebounds per contest. The Kinston, North Carolina native averaged 6.3 points on the season and also had 34 blocks. She recorded thee double-doubles this season for the Hokies.
For Tech, the five members of the All-Academic Team mark a new program best, another in a long line of milestones reached this season.
Virginia Tech's five All-Academic selections
Taja Cole, Gr., G, Agriculture & Life Sciences, Leadership Studies
Elizabeth Kitley, Fr., C, Human Nutrition, Foods & Exercise
Dara Mabrey, So., G, Multimedia Journalism, Sports Media & Analytics
Lydia Rivers, Gr., F, Agriculture & Life Sciences, Leadership Studies
Aisha Sheppard, Jr., G, Multimedia Journalism, Sports Media & Analytics
Monday's All-ACC release
Tuesday's ACC awards release
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