The ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament began Wednesday and the teams are starting out strong. Both Virginia and Wake Forest were favored to win their games, and the women didn’t disappoint. The only upset of the day, although slight, was No. 13 ranked Clemson beating No. 12 Virginia Tech with a final score of 69-56.
The lady Tigers actually lost to Virginia Tech just last week and weren’t going to let history repeat itself. When asked what was different about this week’s game, player Nikki Dixon said, “I think that today, tonight we played with like revenge, and that’s the biggest thing, is that we can’t let a team pound on us twice, it’s not going to happen. We worked too hard.” That’s it ladies, get mad and play hard.
The battle continues tomorrow when Clemson will play No. 5 Syracuse and rivals Miami and Florida State will duke it out for a spot in the quarterfinals. The top four teams (Notre Dame, Duke, Maryland and NC State) already snagged spots in the quarterfinals on Friday, March 7 and now await their opponents.
On a final note, this year the ACC will lose Maryland to the Big 10. As an ode to their time in the ACC, let’s do a Throwback Thursday to one of the best Terrapin athletes of all time, Vicky Bullett. Bullett was part of the 1989 Maryland women’s basketball team and helped lead them to a tournament victory over NC State. She was named tournament MVP and set many school records during her time at Maryland. Bullett went on to play for the Washington Mystics and was also on the USA women’s team in the 1988 and 1992 Olympic summer games, winning gold and bronze medals, respectively.
