Danielle Collins wins in US Open, Football ready for Richmond, and O-Line ahead of schedule

Good morning Wahoos and thanks for joining me on this fine Hump Day morning. We are officially three days out from football season which means we’re closing out our preseason coverage and are gearing up for the Virginia Cavaliers’ season ahead.

Notable news

Collins powers past Osaka in US Open first round — WTA Tennis

In the first round of the US Open, former Virginia Tennis star Danielle Collins took care of business against two-time champ Naomi Osaka in straight sets 7-6(5) and 6-3. Having lost to Osaka on three straight occasions leading up to this match, the 19th ranked player in the world exorcised that demon and advanced to the second round.

“When you lose to someone three times you get a lot of information on what you can do better,” Collins said. “With Naomi being the player that she is, she definitely whooped me the last time. I just had to learn from that and make adjustments and I think I did that.”

Hoos Ready for Games to Begin — Virginia Sports

Of course, UVA Football is gearing up for its season opener on Saturday and Jeff White has a good piece on Tony Elliott’s approach to his first game as the UVA head coach.

Will the Wahoos, who finished 6-6 in 2021, their sixth season under Bronco Mendenhall, look sharp against UR? Will they look sloppy? Stay tuned.

“How my team is going to play, I have a vision,” Elliott told reporters Tuesday at his weekly press conference at John Paul Jones Arena. “Now, I’m hoping that that vision comes to life. But the things that are going to be important for me are just the program, philosophical, transferable aspects of what we’ve been working on, just the little things, playing hard, playing with toughness.

Social media dive

To open up our social media dive, former UVA safety Joey Blount has officially made the Seattle Seahawks 53-man roster after he joined the franchise as an un-drafted free agent. Blount is one of a number of ‘Hoos to make NFL rosters through final cuts this week. Stay tuned for a full update coming out in the next day or two.

Then, from yesterday’s press conference with Tony Elliott, we’ve got a tweet from yours truly paraphrasing the Head Wahoo who notes that his offensive line is farther along developmentally than where he expected them to be right now.

Student perspective

This is one of those weeks that feels far longer than it is. The fact that today is just Wednesday is a tad depressing. But, nevertheless, we move.

One thing that is fun about being on Grounds on a daily basis is the brief interactions with UVA’s best known athletes. Yesterday in particular was a pretty cool moment:

Say what you will about Kihei, he’s a good dude. Maybe it wasn’t quite 30 seconds that he held the door for, but it was long enough that he went quite out of his way for the convenience of a few of his fellow students. He’s a great ambassador for UVA sports and his position as the face of the Virginia basketball program is a valuable one.