The No. 6 Virginia Tech Hokies (10-0) host the No. 5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (8-1) on Sunday in a matchup between the two highest-ranked teams in the ACC. It will be the first ACC game of the 2022-23 season for Notre Dame and the second for Virginia Tech, both of whom are expected to compete for the ACC title. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network, with tip-off scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.
Virginia Tech entered the 2022-23 season with high expectations, and its spotless record thus far would suggest that the Hokies are, at the very least, playing up to par. They’ll be without star guard Ashley Owusu, however, for the foreseeable future; the 2020-21 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award winner, who transferred to Virginia Tech this past summer after three seasons at Maryland, recently suffered a broken finger and is without a clear date to return to the court.
While the Hokies have done just fine without Owusu in the three games she’s missed, her absence may hurt against the Irish, who field one of the most dynamic playmakers in the country in Olivia Miles. The sophomore guard recorded her third career triple-double in Notre Dame’s last game, against Merrimack, and she’s currently averaging a healthy stat line of 16 points, 7.8 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 2.4 steals per…
