By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
As the William & Mary women's basketball team made history in 2019-20, so did Eva Hodgson. She led the Colonial Athletic Association in scoring and set a program record by averaging 20.7 points a game.
 
Better still, Hodgson was only a sophomore. There was so much more ahead.
 
That so much more will have to wait. With concerns over COVID-19, Hodgson announced last month she would opt out for the upcoming season. That's nearly 21 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists a game that were expected to return for 2020-21 but won't.
 
How will the Tribe, which won a school-record 21 games last season, make up for that? That's the obvious question, and the answer is just as obvious.
 
"It's going to be by committee," W&M coach Ed Swanson said. "Bre Bellamy and Sydney Wagner have had great preseasons. Chaniqwa Gilliam, even when we had Eva coming back, we were trying to implore her to take more responsibility as an elite guard. She's done that in practice.
 
"Bailey Eichner, Nyla Pollard, Gabby Rogers … our upperclassmen won't allow us to skip a beat. Our expectations haven't changed. The team has been practicing with some great enthusiasm. We're young in some positions, and we're going to need some younger kids to step up for us."
 
Hodgson's absence is a blow, no question, but W&M (21-8, 12-6 CAA last season) returns six players who averaged at least 11 minutes a game. Each was a major factor in W&M's best season in its 100-year history.
 
Wagner, the first player off the bench last season, is the top returning scorer at 8.3 points a game. Of her 86 baskets, 46 were from the 3-point arc.
 
"She's got the ability to score," Swanson said. "She can shoot it and she's aggressive. She looks for her shot. I see her hopefully increasing her output to be double-figure scorer."
 
Bellamy, a 6-foot wing who started 24 games as a freshman, showed her scoring potential with 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting in a win over Hofstra. Pollard and Rogers are expected to bump the 6.1 points a game each averaged last season. Gilliam, who averaged 2.2 points in 11 minutes as a freshman, also will spend time at the point.
 
Though not a prolific scorer, Eichner should increase her 3.6 points a game from last season. Her specialty is blocking shots (a team-leading 22 as a junior) and rebounding (5.3 a game, the top returner).
 
"We have a lot of players on our team who are very capable of being leading scorers or highly contributing members on the team," said Pollard, one of three seniors on the active roster. "Whether it's scoring, rebounding or defensive stops, we have a lot of players who are good at different things.
 
"We have a lot of players who have logged a lot of minutes and understand what it takes to win a championship."
 
Swanson believes there is enough experience and leadership to keep the program moving forward.
 
"Gabby Rogers, Nyla Pollard, and Bailey Eichner are the heart and soul of the team," he said. "They've been around for four years and have been all about effort. You look at their stats over a career, and you're probably not all that in awe. But the things they bring to the table in terms of their toughness, their intensity, their work ethic on a daily basis, that's what they bring to the team.
 
"I'm really looking forward to them being the leaders and carrying this team this year because of how much work they've put in. They've had significant mileage in CAA play and competing in big games. They know what it takes, and they've been great in the preseason."
 
Swanson expects immediate contributions from 6-1 freshmen Kayla Beckwith and Rebekah Frisby-Smith. He described Beckwith as "a hybrid forward" and Frisby-Smith, who is from Australia, as "strong, physical player."
 
Swanson wishes his team could have had summer workouts together, something else that was prevented by the pandemic. He knows this won't be the same team that ranked 22nd nationally in assists (16.4 per game) and first in free throw percentage (.815) last season.
 
But he's encouraged by what he is seeing.
 
"I'm excited with how we're practicing," he said. "I'm sure it's going to take some time early on to mesh, but I do think this team will be better as the weeks goes on, the months go on, and the games go on. We have a great ceiling to improve.
 
"We have to find some different ways to score hopefully off our defense. We'll have to find different ways to score, but the team has been fun to coach so far."
 
William & Mary was picked eighth in the Colonial's preseason poll, which was somewhat expected after losing Hodgson and forward Victoria Reynolds (15.8 points, 6.2 rebounds a game) to graduation. Of course, the Tribe was No. 7 in last year's poll but finished four spots higher.
 
With the No. 3 seed in the CAA tournament, its best ever, William & Mary had won eight of its last 10 games entering its quarterfinal against Delaware. But just hours before tip-off, on March 12 with the novel coronavirus spreading, the tournament was canceled.
 
It was a frustrating ending to an historic season.
 
"We were all looking forward to and had prepared so much for the tournament last year," Pollard said. "We were so ready to tackle that challenge and come out victorious.
 
"Coming into this year, that's still our goal. That will take everything we gave last year and even more given the parameters of what's going on. Things are different now, but the goals remain the same."