Update: a celebration of the W & M women’s basketball team will take place on Saturday March 29 during the W & M baseball match against Hofstra. Details are available here.
The last seconds checked the return of the NCAA tournament of William & Mary to welcome Texas on Saturday evening, triggering a celebration rarely seen by a losing team.
It was not a failure to move forward for W&M. It was a victory tour for a program that is clearly increasing after a story book for the CAA championship, his first Big Dance trip and his first victory for the NCAA tournament in a week.
“It was all joy,” said the main attacker Anahi-lee Cauley ’25. “Yes, we have lost, and I would have been much happier if we win, but I would not have wanted to lose with any other team. We did not back down. We did not fold. We continued to fight, and we thought we were towards each other.”
Smiles of the size of Texas extended on the faces of players and coaches as they left the court to an exciting ovation of a noisy section of William & Mary fans who understood many of the nearest family members.
The team spent a few minutes cooling off in the locker room before reappearing on the field for a call for curtains. The faithful W&M were the only fans who remained in the Moody Center of 10,763 seats in Austin, Texas, which was close to the capacity little earlier for the victory of Longhorns 105-61 in the second round of the tournament.
Subsequently, the players joined their families in the stands, shared hugs and praised their biggest fans. This acclaiming section has swelled in recent days, when the university was reveling in the fundamental moment for W&M.
“To enter this environment, an NCAA tournament match, and to see our fans standing the whole game in front of our bench, and to see the whole arena filled, it was such an breathtaking experience to be here,” said W&M head coach Erin Dickerson Davis. “So that we can compete with a team like Texas, it’s just a testimony to belief. I know you have heard me say a million times. I’m going to repeat it. I’m going to tattoo it somewhere at some point, but that’s it. That’s what it showed us.”
Coming to the conclusion
The historic team of the team was still another way William and Mary pushed the limits of success.
This happens throughout the university. In only the past year, William and Mary announced the creation of Lattes school for coastal and marine sciencesrendering possible by a transformer gift; foggy Robert M. Gates Halla hub for research and teaching supported by another generous gift; and inaugurated the new IT, Data Sciences and Physics School. In February, it was announced that the university had arrived in Carnegie R1 Research designationas high as possible in higher education.
And then there is athletics, the female basketball team offering the last example of high-end realization by the school teams. The program believes that this is only the beginning to make W&M a powerful basketball entity and a springboard for more success for all university athletics teams.
Which will be made even more feasible with the opening of a new Athletics complex This will include the 36,000 feet Macuckesy Sports sports performance center. Nicknamed the Mack, the installation will include areas of strength and packaging, study spaces, a sports medicine area, a full-size basketball training court and renovated changing rooms.
“It’s really, really cool to see everything that materializes, all the plans they had when I got here being put into action and everything has accumulated,” said the fifth year striker Kayla Beckwith ’25.
“It is also something where it is like” wow, you guy finally understand and see that William & Mary could be a school like Stanford or Cal, or schools with high academics who also pay attention to athletics and is just a good global school by and through, whether academics or athletics. “”
Reminder
Saturday’s conflict in the first round with Texas from the seeded was a call to curtain for a program that has overcome long chance of making more than any basketball team in the history of the school.
The successful race excited a flow of support from students, teachers, former students and fans, many of whom made the trip to Austin, Texas, for the team of the team, the first four victories on High Point on Thursday, its first victory in the Big Dance.
This group of faithful included the president of William & Mary, Katherine A. Rowe, who led the applause section throughout the weekend.
Then Beckwith and Rowe shared a tight hug. Tears flowed Beckwith’s face, repeating: “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” These emotions continued to flow while Beckwith was the director of athletics Brian Mann.
“I have had all the experience here in the past five years, and I don’t thank President Rowe and Ad Mann enough,” said Beckwith. “When Ad Mann entered, he listened to us. He listened to the desires and needs of older basketball players. He put action in his words.”
In addition to those who gathered in Texas, William & Mary Faithful watched the match in a certain number of watch evenings across the country. Nearly 800 fans filled seats in Kaplan Arena alone to watch the ESPN2 television broadcast at the national level of the match, the second national performance of the team in three days. The protruding facts of the game were presented on the Popular Sportscent program of ESPN, and the national points of sale covered the magic race of the team, including USA today and the Associated Press.
It was the last match for the Seniors Beckwith, Cauley, La Garde Bella Nascimento and the striker Rebekah Frisby-Smith and a revealing experience for young people who are regular like the Monet Dance and Cassidy Geddes guards, two second-year students who have become leadership roles throughout the historical season.
“It was incredible,” said Dance. “It will be more motivation for us because we want to add more (championships and appearances of the NCAA tournament). We want to continue building and adding. ”
Nathan Warters,, Deputy Director of Media Relations
