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UVA Women's Basketball Picked to Finish 9th in ACC, Johnson Preseason All-ACC

Matt Newton

Virginia Athletics

Virginia women's basketball was picked to finish ninth in the 2024-2025 ACC Women's Basketball Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's 18 coaches and the Blue Ribbon Panel. Additionally, UVA sophomore guard Kymora Johnson was selected to the 10-player Preseason All-ACC Team and garnered one first-place vote for Preseason Player of the Year, which went to reigning ACC Rookie and Defensive Player of the Year Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame.

Johnson's first season playing college basketball was a rousing success, as the Charlottesville native was named to the All-ACC Second Team and ACC All-Freshman Team, becoming the first Cavalier freshman to earn an All-ACC selection since Brandi Teamer in 2002. She was also one of only two sophomores picked to this year's Preseason All-ACC Women's Basketball Team, joining Hannah Hidalgo.

Johnson was Virginia's leading scorer as a first year in 2023-2024, averaging 15.3 points per game. She notched eight games of 20 or more points, including a 35-point effort against Florida State, 25 points against North Carolina, and 21 points against Virginia Tech. Johnson registered 172 assists and broke the UVA freshman record, owned by Sharneé Zoll since 2005.

What We Learned From the Virginia Women's Basketball Blue-White Scrimmage

Blue Ribbon Panel Preseason All-ACC Team (First-place votes – 79 voters)

Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame 921 (62 first-place votes)
Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State 734 (9 first-place votes)
Saniya Rivers, NC State 527 (2 first-place votes)
Aziaha James, NC State 473 (1 first-place vote)
Olivia Miles, Notre Dame 457 (4 first-place votes)
Sonia Citron, Notre Dame 331
Makayla Timpson, Florida State 315
Alyssa Ustby, North Carolina 308
Reigan Richardson, Duke 202
Kymora Johnson, Virginia 193 (1 first-place vote)

Virginia was picked to finish 10th in the ACC last season and wound up finishing tied for 10th with Georgia Tech with a conference record of 7-11.

In this year's poll, Notre Dame earned 70 of the possible 79 first-place votes as the landslide favorite to win the ACC. NC State earned eight first-place votes and was the runner-up and Stanford received the last first-place vote, but was picked to finish seventh. Duke, Louisville, and Florida State round out the top five.

Blue Ribbon Panel Predicted Order of Finish (79 voters)

  1. Notre Dame (70), 1726
  2. NC State (8), 1617
  3. Duke, 1446
  4. Louisville, 1370
  5. Florida State, 1335
  6. North Carolina, 1279
  7. Stanford (1), 1214
  8. Miami, 883
  9. Virginia, 877
  10. Georgia Tech, 855
  11. Syracuse, 801
  12. Virginia Tech, 786
  13. Clemson, 553
  14. California, 546
  15. Boston College, 533
  16. SMU, 274
  17. Wake Forest, 259
  18. Pitt, 233

The 2024-2025 Virginia women's basketball season will begin on Monday, November 4th, when the Cavaliers host American at 7pm at John Paul Jones Arena. Before that, UVA will face Barton College in an exhibition game on Thursday, October 31st at 6pm at John Paul Jones Arena.

More UVA Women's Basketball News & Content

What We Learned From the Virginia Women's Basketball Blue-White Scrimmage

VIDEO/Transcript: Coach Mox, UVA Women's Basketball Players at ACC Tipoff

VIDEO: UVA Women's Basketball Blue-White Scrimmage Highlights

UVA Women’s Basketball Schedule Reaction: The Good and Bad of Virginia's Slate

Published
Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.