Virginia strong safety Jonas Sanker landed at No. 39 on EA Sports’ list. The senior is listed with a 92 overall rating.

Sanker is coming off a junior campaign that landed him a first-team All-ACC selection. His 107 tackles last year led Virginia and were No. 4 in the ACC. Sanker was third in the ACC in pass deflections with 11.

Sanker’s rating of 92 overall makes him the highest-rated strong safety in the game.

Top 100 @JonasSanker x @EASPORTSCollege #UVAStrong | #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/Oat9apnNti

— Virginia Football (@UVAFootball) July 10, 2024

Virginia Tech cornerback Dorian Strong landed at No. 66 on EA Sports’ top 100. The graduate student is listed as a 91 overall player.

Strong was a third-team All-ACC selection last year and was named to Action Network’s All-American second team. Strong defended 11 passes last season, tying him with Sanker for No. 7 in the ACC.

Strong’s rating of 91 makes him the ninth-highest-ranked cornerback in the game.

Sanker and Strong are the fourth- and eighth-highest-rated players from the ACC in the game, respectively.

Michael Sauls, (757) 803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com

Christian Gurdak, a 6-9 center rated as a four-star recruit and top 100 player by 247Sports, has committed to Virginia Tech for the 2025 class, according to multiple reports.

The Gonzaga College High School (Washington, D.C.) standout chose the Hokies over Notre Dame, Clemson, Maryland, Penn State and Iowa among other schools.

Gurdak becomes the Hokies’ second commit in the 2025 class, joining Churchland High forward Sin’Cere Jones.

ODU to face BC in tourney opener

Old Dominion will face Boston College in its first game at the Cayman Islands Classic at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 24.

It will be the Monarchs’ first meeting against the Eagles.

Here are the other Nov. 24 matchups of the Cayman Islands Classic: Hampton vs. Boise State, 11 a.m.; South Dakota State vs. Duquesne, 1:30 p.m.; Missouri State vs. High Point, 5 p.m.

ODU will play additional games in the tournament on Nov. 25 and 26 at John Gray Gymnasium in George Town, Grand Cayman.

HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER

Two 757 teams make national poll

Two Hampton Roads teams landed in the final United Soccer Coaches national Top 25 high school poll.

Kellam’s girls team is No. 6, while Cox’s boys are No. 18.

WOMEN’S COLLEGE GOLF

Three ODU stars earn academic honor

Old Dominion’s Sarah Mardani, Leiu Yuenyong and Puneet Bajwa have been named to the Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar Team.

To earn the honor, players had to have a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher, be on the team’s roster through the end of the season and play in at least half of the program’s scheduled rounds.

LOCAL BASEBALL

Pilots improve to 5-0 in 2nd half

Corbin Shaw hit a two-run double and Dalton Barham tossed three scoreless innings with six strikeouts as the Peninsula Pilots edged the Wilson Tobs 2-1 on Monday night in Wilson, North Carolina.

The Pilots (21-8 overall) improved to 5-0 in the second half of the Coastal Plain League season and have won eight straight overall.

The Tobs dropped their first game of the second half, falling to 4-1.

Shaw finished with two hits along with teammates Henry Garcia and Ryan Dooley.

Briefly

• William & Mary will offer a new field-level gameday experience at all six Tribe football home games this season at Zable Stadium. The Tribe Touchdown Club, located directly behind the south end zone (formerly Tailgate Terrace), will offer food, beverages and enhanced amenities. More information is available at TribeAthletics.com/TouchdownClub.
• Wayne Block, who led Christopher Newport’s Sports Information Department for 27 years, died at his home Tuesday in Arizona at the age of 79. He was a fixture at Captains games from 1983 until his retirement in 2010.
• UVA women’s lacrosse player Madison Alaimo has been selected to the 22-player roster for the U.S. Women’s U20 National team. The squad will compete in the 2024 World Lacrosse Women’s U20 Championship on Aug. 15-24 in Hong Kong.
• UVA women’s soccer player Yuna McCormack has been invited to participate in the U.S. U20 Women’s Youth National Team Training Camp, which starts Monday and continues through July 16 in Athens, Georgia.
• Liberty will host the 2025 Atlantic Sun Women’s Lacrosse Championship for the first time in program history. The past two ASUN tournaments have been held in Jacksonville, Florida. The Flames joined the ASUN in 2019.

The ACC’s expansion west officially started Monday as the league welcomed SMU, California and Stanford. SMU officially became a member Monday, and Cal and Stanford join Aug. 2 to expand the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Pacific Coast.

SMU left the American Athletic Conference, and Cal and Stanford departed the Pac-12. All three begin ACC competition in the fall.

The ACC makeover comes as programs leave their conferences for more stability — and money — in college athletics. Before summer’s end, Southern California, UCLA, Oregon and Washington leave the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, while Oklahoma and Texas bolt the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference and Utah, Arizona State, Arizona and Colorado join the Big 12.

Closer to home, the ACC now has 18 members (17 play football because Notre Dame plays as an independent).

“This summer marks a momentous occasion for the ACC with the addition of three prestigious institutions — Cal, SMU and Stanford,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a release officially welcoming them on Monday. “Since our announcement last September, the conference has been diligently preparing to become an 18-member league that spans from coast to coast. We look forward to the future of this incredible league and extend a warm welcome to the student-athletes, coaches, staff, campus communities, alumni, and supporters of Cal, SMU, and Stanford into the ACC.”

___

How often has the ACC expanded?

The newcomers this summer mark the ACC’s seventh expansion since the league was established in 1953 with seven charter members. Virginia joined later in 1953 to make it eight. Georgia Tech joined in 1979 and Florida State followed in 1992. Virginia Tech and Miami joined in 2004 and Boston College in 2005. Syracuse and Pitt were welcomed in 2013, along with Notre Dame in all conference-sponsored sports except football. Louisville became a full member in 2014.

___

How will scheduling work?

Most sports will be organized to ease travel — teams headed west will likely make stops at Cal and Stanford on the same trip when possible, Phillips said last month during a Q&A in Charlotte at the Associated Press Sports Editors annual conference. For football, East Coast teams are expected to travel to the West Coast to face Cal and Stanford every other year, and Cal and Stanford will travel east three to four times per season.

A recent breakdown of expected ACC travel by bookies.com shows Cal logging a league-high 20,660 miles for football in 2024, followed by Stanford at 14,017 miles. Stanford plays ACC road games this season at Syracuse, Clemson and N.C. State and also visits Notre Dame in a non-conference game. Cal visits Florida State, Pitt and Wake Forest in football this season.

___

Newcomers vs. UVA, Virginia Tech

Virginia and Virginia Tech play only one football game each against the ACC’s new members. UVA is at home Nov. 23 against SMU, and Virginia Tech plays at Stanford on Oct. 5.

___

#TheMustangsHaveArrived pic.twitter.com/BIZCvNHGqa

— SMU (@SMU) July 1, 2024

About SMU

Southern Methodist University, a 12,000-student school located in Dallas, is coming off its most successful year in the AAC (eight conference championships). The Mustangs have won 10 national championships overall. Notable athletic alums: Pro Football Hall of Famers Raymond Berry, Eric Dickerson, Forrest Gregg, Lamar Hunt and Doak Walker.

___

About Cal

The University of California, Berkeley, has an enrollment of more than 42,000 and is located along the San Francisco Bay near Oakland. The school’s athletic program has produced 104 national championship teams and 223 Olympic medalists, including 121 gold medalists. Notable Golden Bears athletic alums: Aaron Rodgers, Jason Kidd, Natalie Coughlin, Marshawn Lynch and Jaylen Brown.

___

About Stanford

The school just south of San Francisco has 7,800 undergraduates and 9,600 graduate students. No college has won more than Stanford’s 136 team national championships, and the Cardinal have won at least one NCAA team championship during each of the last 48 seasons dating back to the 1976-77 campaign. Notable athletic alums: Tiger Woods, John Elway, Andrew Luck, Christian McCaffrey, Michelle Wie and Katie Ledecky.

___

What about the ACC’s legal fight?

The league and two longtime members are embroiled in a legal battle that is unrelated to the arrival of SMU, Cal and Stanford. Florida State and Clemson are both suing the ACC to escape the league’s Grant of Rights agreement that keeps member schools in a TV contract through 2036. The ACC has countersued both schools.

“We’re going to fight it with every effort that we can,” Phillips said in Charlotte during a Q&A at the Associated Press Sports Editors annual conference. “With what has been agreed upon, twice, the Grant of Rights deserves to be executed. And so we have taken that position.

“So we’re going to fight,” Phillips added. “I’m going to fight. And the courts will ultimately decide. And we believe that everybody knows what was in that contract back then. And it was celebrated. And people were excited.”

“I want to be very clear that had the NIL rules been in place when I was in college, I would not have had an NIL deal,” joked Youngkin, who averaged just 1.4 points game in four years as a basketball player at Rice University.

Youngkin signed into law a bill that grants Virginia colleges unprecedented freedom to administer name, image and likeness benefits to athletes.

House Bill 1505, boasting wide-ranging support from administrators, permits state colleges and universities to create and negotiate NIL deals — and pay athletes — without NCAA restrictions. The measure is believed to be the first of its kind.

“What an exciting moment,” Youngkin said, “to actually take this very important next step and making Virginia the most competitive place, to not just to participate in college athletics, but also the most competitive place for our universities to really take care of our athletes and drive them to the next level.”

The bill’s sponsor, Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt, joined Youngkin and coaches and administrators from across the state for the ceremonial signing. Among those in attendance were football coaches Tony Elliott (Virginia), Brent Pry (Virginia Tech) and Dawson Odums (Norfolk State); and Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach.

Rouse was a star athlete at First Colonial High and played football at Virginia Tech before embarking on an NFL career.

“This legislation protects athletes and permits Virginia’s institutions and collectives to create and negotiate NIL opportunities,” Rouse wrote on X. “I’m proud to (have) worked with Delegate Austin to move this ball forward & thank Gov. Youngkin for signing it into law.”

College athletes have cashed in since the NCAA enacted its NIL rules in 2021. Among a few examples across the state: Old Dominion football players have been paid to sign autographs, and UVA basketball players have inked endorsement deals with a store that sells arch supports.

Those and other NIL deals have been directed by a third party.

“This is saying that the institutions can get involved in all of that,” ODU athletic director Wood Selig told The Virginian-Pilot on Thursday. “It’s giving us permission to do all that.”

Added Christopher Newport University AD Kyle McMullin: “The NIL law will give us new flexibility in the future to support our students, but our immediate priority is to direct all available resources to funding the day-to-day commitment to excellence in competition and in the classroom.”

The law takes effect July 1. Among the bill’s provisions: Student fees are not permitted to be used in paying athletes for NIL.

“I am thrilled about the groundbreaking and progressive NIL legislation signed by Governor Youngkin this morning,” NSU athletic director Melody Webb said in a statement. “This legislation not only protects in-state schools and their student-athletes but also paves the way for positive change in collegiate athletics.”

Most colleges — including ODU, NSU, Hampton University and William & Mary — have started collectives to help negotiate NIL deals, and those are expected to stay relevant.

“We’ll continue to work with our collective, which is the Pride of ODU,” Selig said. “We’ll continue to work with our 757 Club, which is membership-based with membership benefits. So we’re going to continue to do business as we have for the last year or so, and then we have to talk to our peer institutions, our fellow institutions in the commonwealth, and kind of get a sense for, where are the advantages?

“Where are there potential pitfalls in this opportunity, and what works best for ODU? What works best for ODU may not be what works best for UVA, or vice versa.”

UVA athletic director Carla Williams echoed those sentiments at virginiasports.com, saying the legislation gives colleges “much-needed flexibility, but we haven’t made any (final) decisions about which provisions within the law we’ll actually activate.”

“We’ll continue to support Cav Futures,” Williams added, referring to the school’s NIL collective, “we’ll continue to discuss our options internally, we’ll monitor the environment, we’ll talk with our coaches, our student-athletes, and we’ll make a decision that’s best for UVA.”

Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock said in a release the school was thankful for Youngkin and the state legislature’s “proactive work in the NIL space.”

“Not only does this position us more competitively among other states during this critical time,” Babcock said, “but it also allows for more school involvement as we continue to enhance our recruiting and retention efforts to bring the most talented student-athletes to Virginia Tech.”

William & Mary athletic director Brian Mann said Thursday the school “is still in the process of thoroughly evaluating how this new legislation impacts our programs. We understand the importance of NIL and are committed to continue to find ways to support our student-athletes and coaches in this space.”

Staff writers David Hall and Marty O’Brien contributed to this story.

Center Elizabeth Kitley was a second-round selection of the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA draft on Monday night in Brooklyn, New York. She was the 12th pick of the round and 24th overall.

Kitley appeared to be a lock as a first-round pick, but she suffered a torn ACL in the Hokies’ regular-season finale on March 3. She’s expected to miss the upcoming WNBA season, which starts May 14.

The accolades the 6-6 Kitley compiled during her college career are numerous. Some of the highlights include:

• Two-time All-American
• Three-time ACC Player of the Year
• Two-time ACC champion
• Four-time All-ACC first-team selection
• Four NCAA Tournament appearances

Kitley averaged 22.8 points and 11.4 rebounds a game this past season, leading the Hokies to their first ACC regular-season title in program history. She holds many school records, including total points (2,709), field-goal percentage (55.2%) and blocks (331). She also owns ACC records for rebounds (1,506) and double-doubles (76).

Virginia Tech reached the Final Four for the first time in the 2022-23 season.

The Hokies have had a player selected in the WNBA draft for three straight years for the first time. Kayana Traylor was the 23rd overall pick last year by Chicago and Aisha Sheppard went No. 23 to Las Vegas in 2022.

Also on Monday night, guard Ashley Owusu, who spent a season at Virginia Tech before finishing her career at Penn State, was a third-round selection of the Dallas Wings. She went 33rd overall. She averaged 17.7 points a game for the Nittany Lions.

Former James Madison star Kiki Jefferson was a third-round pick of the Minnesota Lynx, going 31st overall. She played her final college season at Louisville, averaging 15 points and 6.5 rebounds a game.

Duffy, 39, guided the Golden Eagles to a 110-46 record (64-30 in the Big East) and three NCAA Tournament appearances.

She agreed to a six-year contract and will replace Kenny Brooks, who left to take the head coach job at Kentucky after going 180–82 in eight seasons.

“I am thrilled to welcome Coach Duffy and her husband Kevin to Virginia Tech,” Babcock said via hokiesports.com. “An accomplished player and coach, Megan has a relentless work ethic and a demonstrated ability to develop talent and build successful programs. She is a proven winner and committed to continuing our women’s basketball program’s momentum.”

Duffy has seven years of head coaching experience. She started at Miami (Ohio) in 2017, where she went 44-20 in two seasons.

Marquette started 12-0 this season and finished 23-9, earning a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament and falling to No. 7 seed Mississippi in the first round.

“I am ecstatic to join Virginia Tech Athletics as the leader of the women’s program,” Duffy said. “The opportunity to continue the winning tradition with Hokie Nation and to be a part of the passionate, savvy Blacksburg community makes this a dream job for me. The ACC is the best conference in the country with deep talent and outstanding leaders.”

Duffy, a Kettering, Ohio, native, played at Notre Dame from 2002-06, helping the Irish reach four NCAA Tournaments and two Sweet 16s.

She served as an assistant coach at St. John’s (2009-12), George Washington (2012-14) and Michigan (2014-17) before taking over the program at Miami (Ohio).

The school announced Brooks’ hiring on Tuesday afternoon, hours after Virginia Tech said he would leave the program. Kentucky will introduce Brooks as its ninth coach on Thursday afternoon.

Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart said in a statement the school was “extremely excited” to bring Brooks aboard and cited his past success developing players at James Madison and Virginia Tech while guiding both programs to success.

“When you combine his coaching excellence with his vision for this program and his passion to take us there, he is ideally suited to be head coach of the Wildcats,” Barnhart said.

Brooks thanked Virginia Tech “for the most joyful journey” of his coaching career and expressed excitement in coming to Kentucky and competing in the Southeastern Conference.

“I don’t plan on wasting any time building a positive atmosphere, winning environment and a persistent program that Big Blue Nation can be proud of,” Brooks said.

Brooks will follow Kyra Elzy at Kentucky. She was fired March 11 after consecutive losing seasons since winning the school’s first Southeastern Conference Tournament title since 1982.

Earlier Tuesday, Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock wished Brooks and his family well and called him “an incredible mentor” to the program and a terrific representative of the school.

The Waynesboro, Virginia, native went 180-82 with at least 20 wins in seven of his eight seasons in Blacksburg, leading the Hokies to their first ACC Tournament title last year before winning the 2024 regular-season title. Virginia Tech won a school-record 31 games last season on the way to its Final Four appearance before falling to eventual national champion LSU in the semifinals.

The Hokies (25-7) were seeded fourth in their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament and reached the second round before falling 75-72 to No. 5 seed Baylor on Sunday. They played the ACC and NCAA tournaments without All-American center Elizabeth Kitley, who tore her ACL in the regular-season finale.

“We hired Kenny in 2016 with the intent of revitalizing our women’s basketball program,” Babcock said. “Needless to say, Kenny, his staff and student-athletes created a culture of excellence on and off the court.”

Babcock added that the school will begin a national search for Brooks’ replacement immediately.

Brooks went 337-122 at James Madison and was the Dukes’ winningest coach, leading them to 11 consecutive postseason appearances with six NCAA berths and five WNIT appearances. JMU went 60-3 in Colonial Athletic Association play during his final three seasons at the school in Harrisonburg.

Kitley, a second-team All-American and the Hokies’ top scorer and rebounder, sustained a torn ACL in Virginia Tech’s final regular-season game at Virginia.

The 6-foot-6 center averaged 22.8 points on 55.6% shooting, 11.4 rebounds and just more than two blocks this season.

“This is not at all how I anticipated ending this year with my team,” she said in the post on Instagram.

Coach Kenny Brooks called the time since Kitley’s injury emotionally “one of the most trying couple weeks of my life, for the kids as well, just because of what she means to us.”

Kitley, he said, has “been emotional. I’ve been emotional. I think we probably text each other probably 30 times a day. She will be good and then she will be sad. The kid has put everything into this and she’s the reason we are here. She’s the reason we are here. … The kid ate, slept, drank basketball.”

Virginia Tech, seeded fourth in its region this season after reaching the Final Four for the first time last season, will face Marshall in its opening game at 3:30 p.m. Friday at Cassell Coliseum.

Kitley’s absence will put increased pressure on guard Georgia Amoore, a third-team All-American. She’s the Hokies’ second leading scorer at 19.2 points a game and top playmaker with just under seven assists per game. It also will put the spotlight on Olivia Summiel, who has averaged 13 rebounds in the two games Kitley has already missed.

Summiel doesn’t score like Kitley, averaging just 3.7 points, but the transfer from Wake Forest “had a couple of really big double-digit rebounding games where she might have had only eight points, six points. But she knows her role, she’s comfortable with it, and she’s so valuable to us,” Amoore said.

“Mindset has stayed very much the same all year, regardless of who we’re playing, where we’re playing at, what kind of stakes are at with us,” Amoore said Thursday. “So our mindset, it’s been pretty solid and been pretty consistent the whole year, so we haven’t really been focused on that.”

The former Ocean Lakes High standout batted .600 (9 for 15) with seven home runs, 11 RBIs and 10 runs during the Hokies’ 3-1 week that included its first series win at Louisville since 1995. He also recorded three multi-homer games during each of the Hokies’ victories and extended his hitting streak to six consecutive games heading into Tuesday’s game against East Tennessee State.

For his production, he was named ACC Player of the Week and National Player of the Week by D1Baseball.

“It’s nice to get recognized. All the work we’ve put in from the fall and all the way through the winter, it’s nice,” DeMartini said this week in a telephone interview. “But it’s not about my awards or my accolades. It’s what we’re doing as a team. We’re ranked and it’s the best start we’ve had in the ACC so far … I think ever. That’s the biggest takeaway from last week was how good we’re doing right now as a team.”

DeMartini has led the Hokies (14-4) to the program’s best six-game start in the ACC, best 18-game start to a season since 2012 and a No. 19 ranking in this week’s D1Baseball poll. They currently sit in second place in the ACC Coastal Division with a 5-1 record.

For the season, he is hitting .368 with 12 home runs, 23 RBIs, 31 runs and 25 hits. He also has a .985 slugging percentage. He’s second in the ACC in runs, home runs and slugging percentage and fourth nationally in home runs and slugging percentage.

“I think it’s the most home runs I’ve hit this early,” he said. “I hit 15 my freshman year, but at this point in the season, this is the most.”

What made last week even more special is that his father, Tommy, was there to witness it.

“It’s super special. Me and him have a very tight, close-knit relationship,” Carson said. “We’ve done baseball ever since I can remember. And for him to be at those moments for me and share those moments — because he’s put in so much time and effort into my game as I have — it’s really, really special to see him out there.”

𝙁𝙊𝙐𝙍𝙏𝙃 𝙅𝘼𝘾𝙆 𝙊𝙁 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙒𝙀𝙀𝙆𝙀𝙉𝘿

» @CarsonDemartini #Hokies pic.twitter.com/zC5cMCtahI

— Virginia Tech Baseball (@HokiesBaseball) March 17, 2024

The elder DeMartini can’t make the games during the week, but makes it to every weekend series.

“It’s really exciting to watch. And it’s the best feeling to see him get the benefits of all the work he puts in and all that work is paying off,” he said. “He’s a boy playing a boy’s game, and he’s real good at it. He loves it so much and he’s so passionate about it. As a dad, you just love to see your kid succeed at what they love to do.”

He said seeing his son get the ACC and national honors has also been nice.

“It brings national recognition and national attention, and in my opinion, it’s rightly deserved,” DeMartini said about his son, who is rated the No. 35 overall prospect by Perfect Game and No. 18 college prospect by D1Baseball. “He’s one of the best players in the country, and he’s worked to be one of the best players in the country.”

Carson DeMartini said his work is far from done. He wants to see the Hokies have continued success this season.

“The Hokies are hot and rolling,” said DeMartini, who was a consensus freshman All-American. “The best part about our team is that it’s a bunch of blue-collar players. We’re not a bunch of blue-chip players like UNC, Florida State and Miami. It’s a bunch of guys who have been slept on their entire life, who have now been put together and playing some good baseball.”

Larry Rubama, 757-575-6449, larry.rubama@pilotonline.com

Watkins was 9 of 15 from the field and 14 of 17 at the free-throw line to set a program record for points in an ACC Tournament game. He also had 11 rebounds and four steals. Warley made 8 of his 10 shots as Florida State shot 54% from the field.

Virginia Tech was 4-of-17 shooting in the opening 17 minutes of the second half. The Hokies also finished with 13 turnovers, leading to 25 points for the Seminoles.

Florida State (17-15) advances to play top-seeded and fourth-ranked North Carolina in the quarterfinals Thursday. The Seminoles dropped both regular-season meetings with the Tar Heels, 78-70 on the road and 75-68 at home. Florida State hasn’t beaten North Carolina since the 2020-21 season.

Tyler Nickel sank a long 3-pointer with 7:28 left to tie it at 57, but Virginia Tech did not make another field goal until Sean Pedulla’s basket with 2:42 left to pull within 71-62.

Florida State took advantage of back-to-back Virginia Tech turnovers with layups by Warley and Primo Spears to take a 63-58 lead with 5:01 left. Another steal under the basket led to Warley’s fast-break layup to make it 68-58 at 3:06.

Each team turned it over on an inbounds play and Watkins was fouled before making two free throws at 2:49. Watkins added two more free throws at 2:30 and had an alley-oop dunk at 2:11 for a 74-65 lead.

Spears finished with 10 points for the Seminoles.

Pedulla scored 24 points, Nickel added 18 and MJ Collins had 15 for Virginia Tech (18-14).

Both teams shot 55% or better from the field in the first half. Virginia Tech shot 64% (16 of 25), despite going 4 of 11 from 3-point range, in the first half before finishing at 49%.