By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
Before leaving for the CAA women's basketball tournament last week, William & Mary coach Erin Dickerson Davis gathered her team in a circle. The elephant in the gym was that the Tribe had lost seven of its last eight games and fallen from a potential top-four seed to No. 9.
 
Her message was simple: If you don't believe we'll win four games in four days and cut down the nets, don't come along. Everyone insisted they did, none more fervently than sophomore point guard Monet Dance, a sparkplug during the Tribe's historic run in Washington, D.C.
 
"She was the one leading all of our chants," Davis said. "She was the one in our huddle saying 'I believe on three!' I was like, 'Oh, she's completely locked in.'
 
"She had a hell of a tournament. She's showing that's the player she's capable of being."
 
Indeed she did, and indeed she is. Dance had a solid regular season with per-game averages of 3.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists a game coming mostly off the bench. But as a starter during the Tribe's four-game run, those averages climbed to 15.3, 4.3 and 3.5.
 
Dance had a career day in a quarterfinal upset of top seed North Carolina A&T with 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field. A 32% shooter from the 3-point arc in the regular season, she went 7-of-9 against the Aggies.
 
"After I hit the first two back to back, I honestly thought it was going to be a pretty good night," Dance said. "Everyone just wanted to win and I did everything in my power to help my team do that. It's a blessing."
 
For the four-game sweep in D.C., Dance shot 65.5% from the field and 72.2% from the 3-point arc to make the all-tournament team. If not for Bella Nascimento's incredible performance in Sunday's championship game (33 points, 11 rebounds), Dance very well might have been the MVP.
 
Not that she cares. The championship trophy was enough.
 
"I think this year emphasizes that we have potential and everyone bought in to accomplish something that hasn't been done here," Dance said. "Since we did it, it's been surreal."
 
Dance wasn't the only Tribe sophomore guard who made the all-tournament team. Cassidy Geddes, Dance's roommate, finished the long weekend with 48 points on 20-of-42 shooting. She matched her career-high with 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting against A&T.
 
"We love playing together," Geddes said. "We talk about this team 24/7. We talk about what we can do better for this team. We still have more games to go this season, but we're also hopeful and super excited for next year looking at how we performed."
 
Dance, a 5-foot-3 sophomore from Roswell, Ga., had her ups and downs during the regular season. Part of the reason was lingering injuries. She battled through and played in all 33 games but wasn't quite herself.
 
"She's a small guard and she was trying not to get hurt when she was on the court," Davis said. "Because of that, I think she was overthinking. She was trying to find her rhythm and she couldn't really find it."
 
Gradually, she did. On Feb. 21, Dance scored a season-high 11 points in a home loss to North Carolina A&T. Two weeks later, she had 16 points in 32 minutes, again against A&T. (Come to think of it, in three games against the Aggies, she averaged 18 points).
 
Dance was never better than in the CAA tournament, where the Tribe faced four elimination games in four days. Twice her team faced double-digit deficits in the third quarter, but each time it rallied.
 
"We just stayed together," Dance said. "That's been one of the biggest things we had to focus on. When we stay together and play together, no team can beat us."
 
Monet Dance believes.