The Emory University women’s basketball team has gone a combined 36-13 in their past two regular seasons, but back-to-back NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship first-round exits have left the team with a sour taste in their mouth. Although they have recently underperformed, the group remains confident about the upcoming season.
The team has built up a solid core of players that can hold their own against any University Athletic Association (UAA) squad. Senior guard Daniella Aronsky and senior forward Morgan Laudick look to lead the team this upcoming season. Aronsky is coming off of two straight 10-point-per-game seasons, sporting an incredible 63% true shooting percentage in those combined years. Laudick finished last season with 9.5 points per game, grabbing over five rebounds per game as well. Ahead of her final season, Laudick said the team has something to prove this year after not being ranked in the national preseason polls.
“A lot of people are doubting us, but I honestly think that this team is so confident,” Laudick said. “We just have something to prove to ourselves and to other people around the country and to other teams. We just want to win. We're hungrier this year and confident and I'm honestly super excited to see what this team can do.”
The depth of the Eagles’ roster spans much further than these two senior starters. Graduate transfer guard Hanna Malik will add a valuable scoring option to the team. Malik maintained a career average of 12.6 points per game in her time at Washington and Lee University (Va.).
The team is built up of notable returners as well. Sophomore guard Alexandra Loucopoulos added 5.7 points per game off the bench last season, and senior forward Erin Martin grabbed a team-high 5.6 rebounds per game. Junior guard Lily Kennedy, who head coach Misha Jackson called a “silent assassin,” turned heads last year with her stellar shooting, resulting in an excellent 55.2% effective field goal percentage.
The road to a national championship starts during practice, and the team has made sure to take them seriously. Jackson said she has pushed her players to treat every practice like a national tournament game.
“We definitely accomplished a lot last year, a lot of firsts in our program, but our program and our culture is at a different place than it was a few years ago,” Jackson said. “Even though we had an amazing season, we still feel like we didn’t accomplish too much. But for this year in order to get ready for March, we have to prepare for that like it's today.”
Jackson and Laudick noted that rebounding has been a key point of emphasis during their practices.
“Our offense flows in transition and we like to push the tempo a lot,” Laudick said. “Getting those rebounds and getting quick outlets is really important to get our point guards up and get our runners — our twos and threes — get them the ball and get easy layups.”
Aronsky also pinpointed aggression and sharing the ball as a defining trait of this year’s team.
“Playing together as a team is something we’ve really stressed this offseason,” Aronsky said. “We've been stressing sharing the ball and getting everybody involved.”
The Eagles will open play later this season in the always-competitive UAA, where they finished third last season with a 9-5 conference record. They’ll face off against both No. 1 New York University and No. 18 Washington University in St. Louis (Mo.) twice this season. Laudick said she is looking forward to the tough conference competition.
“It’s a toss-up every single night we play in conference, and that’s what makes it so much fun to play in the UAA,” Laudick said.
Outside of conference opponents, the team will also face No. 7 Washington and Lee on Nov. 16 in the Emory Tip-Off Classic, as well as No. 5 Bowdoin College (Maine) on Dec. 30 in the St. Petersburg Classic at Eckerd College (Fla.).
Although the schedule ahead of them is difficult, the group is positive their winning culture will result in a successful season. Jackson, who sports an impressive 102-49 record in her six seasons as head coach, credited the team’s success to the university’s refusal to be complacent.
“We could easily stay where we’re at and still be OK but Emory is a place that’s always trying to get better,” Jackson said.
One tradition Jackson has brought to the team is road sweeps. When the team wins a stretch of away games, Jackson takes them out for ice cream as a reward for their success. Jackson mentioned that it takes two double road sweeps to reach the national tournament final, so the tradition prepares the team during the regular season for that situation.
The team’s seniors have seen the Eagles improve each year, which Aronsky and Laudick attributed to the upperclassmen who led the team when they were freshmen. This improvement culminated in a 19-7 regular season last year. Despite this achievement, the three seniors want something more in their final season, with Aronsky noting it’s “now or never.”
“Me, Dani and Erin are just super competitive,” Laudick said. “We’ve worked so hard our whole lives. This is our dream to win a championship and we know we can do it.”
The Eagles’ road to the ring begins on Nov. 13 away at LaGrange College (Ga.). Although the team stresses the importance of every regular season game, their main aspirations will hopefully unfold in March at the 2025 NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship. After falling short in recent seasons, the team is looking to overcome past disappointments and pursue the ultimate goal: a national title.
“We want a gold national championship on a banner,” Laudick said.
