It was All Joy

Nine days earlier, William & Mary embarked on an astonishing run in which the team won four games in four days to claim the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Championship, which clinched a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Tribe then cemented its foray into March Madness by defeating High Point in its inaugural tournament game on March 20.

The team’s final contest two nights later against the mighty Texas Longhorns, who were ranked fifth nationally after sharing the SEC regular-season championship, was daunting, but the Tribe approached it with the same excitement and optimism.

William & Mary hung tough with Texas early before the Longhorns pulled away. That the Tribe reached this point was a credit to the belief the coaches and players had in themselves. They overcame great odds to make program history.

Belief became the team’s rallying cry throughout its postseason run.

“For us to be able to compete against a team like Texas, it is just a testament to belief,” Dickerson Davis said. “I know you guys have heard me say it a million times. I’ll say it again. I’ll get it tattooed somewhere at some point, but that’s it. That’s what this has shown us.”

The walk toward the bright lights later that night was an opportunity to contemplate what the team accomplished and to look ahead.

“We were fighting to get here, and now we’ve had a taste of it,” Dickerson Davis said. “We can’t go backwards.”

Relaxing in the courtyard at the Downright Austin hotel during the late afternoon on March 18, Aislinn Gibson ’27 and Monet Dance ’27 affirmed the coach’s comments.

“She cares a lot about us individually,” Dance said. “Her coaching is only a fraction of what she does.”

As an illustration of the team’s close-knit nature, Gibson told how the players surprised Dickerson Davis by showing up at her house one night last summer for an impromptu sleepover. Unfazed, the coach welcomed them in, ordered some food and watched a Channing Tatum movie with them.

“It’s such a family vibe,” said Gibson, who grew up in Massachusetts. “We were all squeezed together on couches and the floor, bonding. We love each other a lot and we get along so well off the court. That streamlined how we were able to be on the court as well.”

The road to the NCAA Tournament was filled with Texas-sized impediments that the Tribe cleared thanks to the leadership of a cadre of seasoned upperclassmen and the resilience of a steady young core.

The more experienced players kept the season afloat when things seemed to be spiraling out of control.

“My veterans stepped in when it was time,” Dickerson Davis said.

She, along with the other three seniors — Kayla Beckwith ’23, M.B.A ’25, Rebekah Frisby-Smith ’24, M.S.B.A. ’25 and Anahi-Lee Cauley ’25 — didn’t have much time left in their college careers, and fizzling out in the CAA tournament wasn’t how they wanted things to end.

“I was like, ‘Yo, are we quitters? Like, what’s the vibe? Because this is like quitter energy. We need to band together, need to stick together ... We just need to play together and play for each other,’” Nascimento said.

Her message resonated clearly. William & Mary beat Hofstra, CAA regular-season champion North Carolina A&T, Drexel and Campbell on consecutive days to complete its miraculous run to the title. In the championship game, the Tribe trailed the Campbell Camels 14-0 to start and was behind by as many as 13 points in the third quarter before coming back to win.

“We believed in ourselves,” Dickerson Davis said. “We believed in our coaches. We believed in our teammates. We believed in each other and what our capabilities are. We always knew we had the talent on the team, but we just had to put all the pieces together.”

Nascimento, who posted the second-highest scoring output (580) in program history this season, was named MVP of the CAA Championships after averaging 18.8 points over the four contests.

“We knew going into CAAs that it was going to be four games in four days, and we kind of called it our ‘Ultimate Revenge Tour,’” sophomore guard Cassidy Geddes ’27 said. “We wanted to see all the teams that had beaten us, especially the teams that beat us by double figures. We just took it day by day. We never looked too far ahead. We knew it was going to take belief and staying together.”

“Cassidy gets the ball. It’s the first 3-pointer she’s ever attempted, and she makes it,” he said, still a little awestruck.

“She has always been the most self-driven person I know,” said her mother, Cindy Geddes P ’27. “She’s driven in every area. She’s the student who sits in the front row of the class.”

That determination to achieve by Geddes and her teammates and coaches is what fueled the Tribe’s belief throughout the season. It’s also why they aspire to so much more. They see this year’s success as a springboard for more achievement in the future for all of William & Mary’s athletics teams.

That will be made even more achievable with the new W&M Athletics Complex that will include the 36,000-square-foot multiuse Mackesy Sports Performance Center. Dubbed “The Mack,” the facility will include strength and conditioning areas, study spaces, a sports medicine area, a full-size practice court for basketball and volleyball, and refurbished locker rooms. (See photos from the “topping off” ceremony on page 16.)

The facility upgrade was made possible by the All In campaign for W&M Athletics, which raised $57.2 million for the university’s 23 Division I varsity teams.

“The school always talks about excellence, and excellence never settles,” Geddes said. “You just keep setting the bar even higher, and I think that’s what William & Mary exemplifies right now — always pushing forward and breaking new ceilings.”

She said she was amazed by the sendoffs at the team hotel. William & Mary supporters lined the entrance, and the W&M Dance Team and Pep Band performed as the players, coaches and staff made their way to the bus.

Former players were among the Tribe faithful who traveled to Austin for W&M’s NCAA Tournament debut. Dr. Christin Gethers ’04 made the trip from Louisiana and met up with her former teammate and roommate Kelly Ercole McMillan ’04 from Northern Virginia.

“I’m so proud of them,” said Gethers, an anesthesiologist with Ochsner Health in New Orleans. “I’m beaming like a parent.”

When Gethers and McMillan played in the early 2000s, the women’s basketball team wasn’t known for its winning record. It went 8-20 in 2002-2003, for example.

“I think there are a lot of us who have paved the way to hope for this moment,” said McMillan, now vice president of sales at American Express. “It’s inspiring to see the group that did it. It’s the right coaching staff with the right group of players.”

Gethers was impressed by how well the team worked together. “They’ve been focused on supporting the ‘hot hand’ who’s going to lead that night,” she said.

At the arena, a lively fan section provided support during both games. William & Mary President Katherine Rowe was one of the most vocal, leading cheers and sharing her excitement throughout.

Former W&M cheerleader Carol Evans ’64, G ’19 sewed her varsity letter on her sweater for the occasion. “It’s a really special night, and great exposure for William & Mary Athletics and the university,” she said “These young people are truly amazing.”

Robyn Lady ’90 drove from Northern Virginia to be in Williamsburg for the watch party.

“I wanted to be with my people, with the Tribe,” she said. “I watched the women’s team win the CAA Championship game on Saturday and was choking up. What they did was so hard to do. They were down 14-0 early in the game. People thought it was all over, but I’m a loyal team supporter. I never walk out on my team until the game is over. And what do you know? They somehow turned it around and won. I get emotional just thinking about it. It’s just phenomenal. Truly phenomenal.”

Former W&M Pep Band member Caroline Semmelmeier ’18 recalled watching the men’s basketball team fall in the 2015 CAA Championship game with an NCAA Tournament berth on the line. “Going back to my dorm that night after the game, I remember wishing that I’d get to see us in the NCAA in my lifetime. And here I am, 10 years later, watching the women crushing their first game in the tournament. It’s a dream come true for me.”

At the Moody Center in Austin, parents grew hoarse as they cheered for their daughters. Geddes looked toward her parents and grinned as they celebrated one of her baskets against Texas. Cauley swished a 3-pointer in the closing minutes of the final game — her third made 3 of the season — and lit up at the cascade of applause.

Natalie Fox ’28 had the fans on their feet with her clutch play in the fourth quarter against High Point. She also had fans back home going crazy.

“One of the things I’m probably never going to forget is all of the overwhelming support we’re receiving from our school and our staff,” Fox said. “There’s watch parties all over Williamsburg, and we’re just seeing videos of that. That’s definitely going to stick with me.”

TO THE VICTOR GOES THE SPOILS

The Longhorns are accustomed to the Texas heat. It was William & Mary, however, that had them sweating in the first quarter of their March Madness showdown.

Beckwith made a layup in the final minute of the opening stanza to pull the Tribe to within 20-18. There was a lot of game left, but William & Mary continued to show the moxie that got the team to that point.

The Tribe made an impression on the home team. Texas head coach Vic Schaefer was full of praise for Dickerson Davis and her squad after the game. William & Mary scored 61 points against the Longhorns — more than any of the next three foes Texas vanquished on its way to the Final Four.

“She’s got some really good players over there that whatever it took, she got them to figure it out,” said Schaefer, who was in the running for his second national coach of the year honor.

“I thought her kids were really tough. They’re competitors. I told her, ‘You be proud of your team because they were really competitive, and they fought tonight. They did not back down.’ They were not fazed by our crowd, and I just wanted her to know to be proud of that because I think that’s a reflection of your head coach.”

The Tribe hopes this year’s success is a harbinger of long-term hardwood prosperity.

It will be hard to replace Nascimento, Beckwith, Cauley and Frisby-Smith, but the team also relied on a group of young players who performed at a high level during the late-season run.

That group includes guards Geddes, who averaged 12.3 points and 2.5 assists in the postseason, and Dance, who shot 61.3% and averaged 14 points per game in the CAA and NCAA tournaments.

“I think the sky is the limit for those two,” Dickerson Davis said. “I think they needed this as a confidence booster to show that they can carry the load, that they can lead this team even when things are not going well.”

The coach lauded Geddes and Dance for their leadership down the stretch. She said the two were instrumental in bringing the team together through team-building exercises and the like.

“Everything is starting to jell together, and that really sets the tone going into next season,” Dickerson Davis said.

The success of this year’s team should serve as ample motivation for next year and beyond, Dance said. “Our goal is to win another championship. Every single day, we’ll focus on how to get better.”

Sometime early in the 2025-2026 season, William & Mary’s women’s basketball team will raise a championship banner in the rafters of Kaplan Arena. It’ll be a powerful reminder of what the program accomplished this season and a catalyst for what the Tribe aspires to be moving forward.

“It’s going to be more motivation for us because we want to add more,” Dance said. “We want to keep building and adding.”

Like that walk toward the booming metropolis of Austin, Texas, William & Mary’s women’s basketball team appears headed toward bigger things.