As falling leaves signify the start of the winter season in Boston, the crisp “swish” of the nylon netting signifies the beginning of basketball season at Emerson. 

For Emerson women’s basketball team, improvement and learning are of the utmost importance right now. Despite barely missing the NEWMAC playoffs, the team went 13-12 last season—their first winning season post-COVID. The hope is to build off of that, and as they gear up for the season ahead, there is a lot of excitement around just how big of a leap the team can take. 

“We’re feeling good about taking that next step,” said longtime head coach Bill Gould, who has led the program since 2007. “Everybody is another year older, more experienced, and more confident in what they’re doing.” 

If Emerson is to take that next step, it’s going to be on the backs of young contributions. With few returning upper-level players and a plethora of first-years and sophomores eager for playing time, a big team focus will be getting the younger players involved as much as possible throughout the season. 

“We had six freshmen last year who didn’t get a whole lot of experience … they’re going to play a big role for the team this year,” said junior guard and team captain Bri Frongillo.

Gould said that the team will be counting on the sophomores to play well within their increased role this year. 

Graduate forward Charlotte Levison thinks a specific area where newer faces will be a big help is on defense, where the Lions allowed the third most points in the NEWMAC last season. 

“On defense we—thank goodness—have a few players bigger than me, so I’m excited to see how we all mesh together,” said Levison. “Whether that means me guarding more guards and them guarding the bigger players, … I take a lot of pride in the defensive side of the ball, so it will be interesting to see.”

On the offensive side of the team’s strategy, Emerson is making some major changes. The team wants to become more versatile to best-serve their personnel.

Gould’s philosophy is that with so many all-around athletes on the roster, it was the perfect time to make changes, even if it takes time for the players to fully embrace them. 

“We’re doing a whole lot of new stuff, and it’s going to take a while for all of it to gel,” he said. “I think once it does, it’s going to be helpful to us. That light’s gonna go off for [us].” 

Levison is particularly excited about the new offense, which will allow her to play more on the perimeter, which she is already accustomed to.

“It’s more flowing, everybody plays every spot. I definitely didn’t grow up being a post [player], so I’m excited,” she said. 

Levison acknowledged that the new system is a work in progress, but ultimately “knows that the offense will come.”

The Emerson women’s basketball season will begin on Nov. 9 at Salem State University before returning to the Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gym on Nov. 11 to kick off three straight home games against Elms College, Houghton University, and Suffolk University.

An interesting quirk of the team’s schedule is that they play no in-conference opponents until the second semester. This has led the Lions to take a different approach to the first half of the season, scheduling a variety of opponents that they feel will prepare them for crucial conference matchups later on. 

“We’re really utilizing the first semester to prepare us for the conference,” Gould said. “When we’re done with our non-conference schedule, I think we’re going to have done pretty well, and hopefully it will have prepared us for the conference games.” 

A couple of those conference games the Lions look forward to are rematches against Smith College and Springfield College, who handed Emerson two close losses at the end of last season. 

“They’re two top teams in our conference and we played them both tough [last season],” Frongillo said. “We could’ve won both those games. This year both of those are going to be big for us, and it just comes down to knowing we can do it.”

A unique stretch of Emerson’s season will come in December over the winter break, when they travel down to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. to play Concordia University and Gettysburg College in the Cruzin’ Classic. 

“I think everyone’s really looking forward to [it],” said Frongillo. “Obviously, getting to play games down in Florida is really fun, but to just spend time with the team and do a bit of traveling together, [it] will be a good time.” 

With the start of the season just on the horizon, the Lions are hopeful that the growing number of sports fans at Emerson will be a difference-maker at home games. 

“We have some really exciting players that I think people will enjoy watching play,” said Gould. “I hope they come out and support us because our [players] really do notice it and appreciate it. It’s great for us and the school.”