ASHLAND – Just a little more than one month removed from winning a national championship to complete a perfect undefeated season, Robyn Fralick says life hasn’t changed for her. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“It hasn’t. There’s still groceries to get, laundry to do and diapers to change. And in a way that’s really good because my life wouldn’t have changed if we hadn’t won it,” Fralick said.
On March 24, the Ashland University women’s basketball team defeated Virginia Union, 93-77, to win the Division II national title and complete a perfect 37-0 season.
“I don’t know if it’s sunk in in one big moment kind of way. I think it’s sunk in the fact that I’m really proud of my team and staff and they’re just really joyous still to be around. There’s an enthusiasm to them and I can see that as a residual effect of winning the national championship,” the coach said.
One year ago, Fralick and the Eagles were in a much different state of mind. After losing only one regular season game and being ranked No. 3 in Division II, AU lost on its homecourt in the regional semifinal to Drury, 86-60.
“It was a really disappointing loss, in a lot of ways. It felt like the things that go into winning, we just weren’t doing those well. So the season ended and I think the biggest things is everything became a little bit clearer to everyone about what it takes on and off the court, what it’s really going to take to win a national championship. It’s easy to talk about, it’s really hard to do,” Fralick said. “For the returners it was much clearer about what it was going to take and we were really hungry. I mean a very, very motivated team and that carried over the summer and into the preseason.”
Among the returners were juniors Andi Daugherty and Laina Snyder. Both earned honorable mention All-American honors as sophomores and anchored a group of eight returners that also included three seniors, including returning starters Alex Henning and Kelsey Peare.
“Last year, we fell short of what our potential was, tremendously,” Snyder said before this season’s title game. “As the postseason started, the week after we had lost, we started talking national championship, because that’s what we knew we could have gotten to last year, and we didn’t. That’s been the driving force behind this entire season.”
The Eagles had a strong class of freshmen coming into the 2016-2017 season, including local high school standout Renee Stimpert, Jodi Johnson from Wadsworth, Sara Loomis and Baylee Kuhlwein. Johnson earned a starting spot from the get-go and Stimpert and Loomis played key minutes off the bench.
“You never necessarily know what’s going to happen when new players come in. We knew we were really excited about the class. We felt like they had the ability, the potential to really impact our program immediately, and they did,” Fralick said. “So there was definitely an excitement and anticipation about what they would bring. They brought a lot to us on the court, and then off the court, they had this energy and enthusiasm to them that was really special to our team.”
Fralick and her staff knew from the start of the season that the 2016-2017 team was going to be special, but it wasn’t until later in the season that the team’s true potential became move obvious.
“Early on we knew what was special was they worked really hard. They had a lot of fun together and there was a camaraderie to them that was really special,” Fralick said. “But the trick is throughout a season to keep that, because that’s the challenge often. It’s easy to do it in the beginning. We knew that but we were every intentional about we’ve got to keep this though the ups and downs and the challenges of the season, and they did.
“To me, that’s what really separated this team, was those things stayed in place and really they got better. They kept growing and getting better as the season went on. The seasons are long. To be able to maintain that and for that to improve, that’s what really separated this team.”
That sense of team and family was something that the coaches worked with the players to foster, and Fralick is quick to give the players a lot of the credit for that camaraderie.
“In the preseason they would meet once a week as a team and go over different articles about positivity and attitude and ownership of your role and they really did that as a team. So I feel that they set the tone early for expectations,” Fralick said. “The trick is to do it before there’s a problem. So the locker room was a space of energy and fun. They’ve got their boom box and they’re always dancing but it was set. It was really intentionally worked on before we played any games. Who are we going to be and what’s it going to look like and what’s our huddle going to look like and what’s our locker room going to look like and they continued to do it.”
The Eagles opened the season scoring 85 or more points in their first 12 games, topping 100 three times and winning by an average of 40 points. As the calendar flipped to 2017, the dominance continued, with AU topping 100 points a total of 11 times and winning every game but 4 by double digits. The Eagles ended the season leading Division II in scoring margin, field goal percentage, assists per game, assists-to-turnover ratio and winning percentage.
“As the season continued, the tone had been set so strong and so early, that they were having so much fun and that helped it stay. Because they loved to practice, they loved to be around each other,” Fralick said. “We would talk as a team throughout the season about what has gotten us here, how do we continue on this path, what can get in the way, how do we avoid the things that can get in the way. The phrase we used throughout the whole season was stay in the huddle. And that’s literally and figuratively. Because there is a lot of outside noise. There’s a lot of outside distractions. Especially when you’re ranked No . 1 in the country throughout the year. They stayed in the huddle and that allowed us to win the national championship.”
While the victories continued to add up and the team topped the national rankings, Fralick and her team were able to stay focused on their end goal and not get caught up in the pressure or hype of being No. 1 and being undefeated.
“All the pressure to me was peripheral. It was outside people. There would be a lot of questions about it or curiosity to it, but we never felt pressure because our identity wasn’t in that. Our identity wasn’t in if we were going to win or lose or win it all. It was in honoring our core values and taking care of each other and practicing hard and enjoying it. That isn’t pressure. Those are things that you can control day in and day out,” Fralick said.
That attitude continued, even on the night before the national championship game, proving that the whole team had bought into what Fralick was selling.
“Before we played the national championship game they’re having a dance party. And it wasn’t because they were nervous. It was because that’s what they did before every game. That was who they were. They loved to play, so that’s where the focus was,” Fralick said. “I was excited that we were playing in the national championship game and I was also very clear that our identity was never going to be in whether we won or lost that and the season wasn’t going to be wrapped up in that. And it’s the same with the girls. It wouldn’t have minimized who they were and how they cared about each other but I feel like those things were rewarded when we were able to win it.”
Seniors Peare, Henning and Rachelle Morrison will leave big holes for Fralick to fill. Incoming freshmen Maddie Blyer, a guard who follows Peare and Julie Worley to AU from Canton Hoover, and Karlee Pireu, a forward from Massilon Perry, will fill roster spots for the Eagles but filling the graduates’ shoes will be much more difficult. But Fralick is confident, in large part because of the amount of experience her returners have amassed.
“We have a lot of returners. We have a lot of returning players who have a lot of experience. I think the experience part is really valuable. But every team is completely different. We had eight returners on this year’s team, and this team was completely different than last year’s team in a lot of ways,” the coach said. “So we know going into next year, we can’t assume that just because our huddle was tight and our locker room was good and our practices were great that that’s just naturally going to happen again. It’s going to be a new team with new dynamics, new strengths, new areas of growth so I think that’s the trick: Not assuming that last year’s team is next year’s team because they’ll be different. Our job as the leaders of the team is to figure out how to maximize that.”
The first chance Fralick and the rest of the basketball world will have to see the new group of players together on the court for a game will come Nov. 5 against the Connecticut Huskies. The Eagles will travel to Storrs, Connecticut, to take on the most dominant team in women’s basketball
One of Fralick’s former teammates is friends with a UConn assistant, who helped the AU coach get in touch with the right people. Originally, UConn’s exhibition schedule was full.
“I got a call about two weeks later saying someone had canceled and wanted to know if we could play and of course I said yes,” Fralick said.
It’s not every day that a Division II team gets to play against the Division I team in any sport, and UConn has been as dominant as any college team. The Huskies had won 111 straight games dating back to 2014 before falling to Mississippi State in this year’s Final Four. UConn has won 11 national titles, all of them in the past 23 seasons. So what does Fralick hope to take away from a matchup against such a juggernaut?
“The thing we’re taking from it is it’s going to be a great experience,” Fralick said. “They’re the best. They’re the best in almost any sport, any gender, any level. They’re the best. How fun it is to be surrounded by excellence and in an environment where women’s basketball is valued at probably the highest level. So it’s going to be a great experience a great atmosphere and it will be a jumpstart for going into the real season.”
Heading into the “real” season, AU will have a new set of challenges to deal with, on and off the court. Winning a national title brings a load of expectations for next season, a reality Fralick and her staff are ready to face with their team when the 2017-18 season rolls around in November.
“We’ve kind of already started talking about that in the postseason. What we did last year — no baskets or rebounds — none of those count going into this season. They don’t carry over. They’re not in a savings account,” Fralick said. “The noise is probably going to be louder and it’s going to be even more important for us to stay in the huddle and to stay present in the team. Because coming off a national championship there’s going to be more distractions and more noise.”
As champions at any level can attest, winning a title is hard, but winning a second one can be even harder. Fralick and her team are working with a different mindset to help avoid any letdown in a drive for another title.
“Last year we were the hungriest team in America at this time. What we’ve talked about is what’s harder than winning it is winning it twice. That’s an even bigger challenge,” Fralick said. “Our mentality is not about defending anything. There’s nothing to defend. Our mentality is attacking for next season and going after it again and knowing that it’s going to be a lot of work and really hard and we’ll do it together.”
Coverage of Ashland University Eagles athletics is produced in partnership with OhioHealth, the official sports medicine provider for Ashland University and dozens of high schools and universities throughout Ohio.
