Around the Corner 9/13: Kymora Johnson picks UVA, a bad weekend of results for fall sports, and Elijah Gertrude sets a date

It’s another crazy day in the world of Virginia Cavaliers athletics, and I welcome you all back to Around the Corner after not getting it up for the first time yesterday. Hope you all didn’t miss me too much...

Notable news

Men’s soccer beats VT, women tie VCU — Streaking the Lawn

Ben’s back with our Around the Pitch series recapping the last week in UVA soccer as the men took a big win against Tech and the women had their first non-win in a 0-0 tie versus VCU.

Top 100 guard Kymora Johnson ready to represent her hometown at Virginia — Wahoos247

Kymora Johnson committing to UVA is big time and she’s already so involved on social media hyping up the program. Her excitement to stay home in Charlottesville and got to school just a few miles from her high school is pretty sweet. Jacquie has a great story with her on 247.

Virginia Basketball Blue-White Scrimmages Scheduled for October 15th — Cavaliers Now

We got our date for the Blue-White scrimmages for each basketball team with gates opening at 12:30, the women starting at 1:30, and the men following shortly thereafter.

UVA Basketball: Four-Star Elijah Gertrude to Announce Decision Wednesday — Cavaliers Now

The big news, one of UVA’s top remaining targets in the 2023 class is announcing his commitment decision tomorrow at 4PM tomorrow on the 247Sports Youtube channel. All signs point towards the ‘Hoos landing the New Jersey guard, but as we learned this spring with London Johnson, you never know until the announcement is made.

No. 9 Virginia Edged 3-2 at No. 1 Northwestern — Virginia Sports

The Wahoo Field Hockey team now drops to 3-2 on the young season and will hope to get things back on track before ACC play kicks off.

From HC Michelle Madison:

“We had opportunities to win the game. To have those opportunities against the number one team in the country is just a credit to the entire team’s attack and defense and their mentality to win it. And their mentality to do it together.”

Social media dive

Okay so not sports related but not too shabby for Mr. Jefferson’s university.

As Sunday was 9/11, a number of programs did workouts in honor of those lost over 21 years ago. Here’s a cool one from the men’s lacrosse team:

Student perspective

Apologies for not getting an ATC up yesterday. Been a grind with schoolwork the last few days and while I had started a story for Monday morning on Sunday night, I may or may not have fallen asleep while writing, lol.

Nevertheless, we are back this beautiful Tuesday morning to discuss what was quite the weekend for UVA sports. That Illinois loss stung. I went into the season expecting a close win. Then, after two games for the Fighting Illini and one for the ‘Hoos, I figured Illinois would get a close-ish victory.

Of course, both those predictions were far off the mark. I don’t think many people saw that result coming, particularly regarding how ineffective the Wahoo offense was. If you want my full thoughts, I typed up my five takeaways from the loss on Saturday. And we will have plenty more football content coming down the chute this week.

Yesterday was another full day of classes. Had Christian’s Pizza for lunch — which was delicious — before working at 1515 for a couple hours and then walking home. That walk included a stroll down the lawn which, as you can see, was absolutely gorgeous in the evening light.

Hope you all can get back to Charlottesville sometime soon. Grounds is truly a special place.