SIMPLY THE BEST: VCU’S BIG THREE PAVE THE ROAD TO SUCCESS
By Chris Kowalczyk
2-27-10

Every year, from colleges all around the country, you’ll see a steady parade of press releases, cooing about next season’s recruiting classes. It makes no difference which sport or gender. Next year’s swimming and diving class always looks like a team of Greg Louganis’ on paper. Many of them will fail to reach the lofty predictions we inflate from within.

However, for VCU’s “Big Three”, the senior trio of D’Andra Moss (pictured, left), Kita Waller and La’Tavia Rorie, it would have been difficult to over-hype their potential. Prior to their arrival in 2006, there was no real script for success at VCU. Now, they are the standard by which all future classes will be judged.

In four seasons, Moss, Waller and Rorie (pictured, right) have won more games (87) than any other group in school history. They helped lead the Rams to just their second postseason bid, a WNIT appearance in 2007-08. They topped that the following season, when VCU earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament and battled Rutgers to the wire. VCU’s 26 wins in 2007-08 smashed the previous school record of 21. The Rams reached that milestone again last season. The Black and Gold need to win two more games this season to reach 20 for the third straight year. Prior to 2007, the program had a total of two 20-win seasons.

In 2005, VCU already had a pair of promising underclassmen in Krystal Vaughn and Quanitra Hollingsworth. VCU Head Coach Beth Cunningham knew she needed to surround her future stars with talent quickly. Her 2006 recruiting class featured five high school players, including Moss and Waller from Georgia and Rorie, a Charlotte, N.C. native.

“It’s always kind of hard looking back, but I felt when we signed that class…it was potentially the best recruiting class we had signed as a whole,” Cunningham said. “The critical thing with our program at the time, we obviously had some talent here with ‘Q’ and Krystal, and I felt like it was going to be so important to get the next pieces in place for us to take the program really forward.  Those three have certainly proved to be as much an impact in the program as any single kid.”

Within two years, VCU reached the CAA title game for the first time in school history and received a postseason WNIT bid, where they beat Charlotte in the first round. Despite the loss of Vaughn to graduation, the Rams didn’t miss a beat in 2008-09, using a 26-6 regular season to secure an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.  

From the moment the “Big Three” stepped onto VCU’s Richmond campus, they’ve taken a professional approach to the game and brought an unmatched enthusiasm.

“I think that’s what’s made them, as a whole, such a great class is that they all have so much positive energy and just a great work ethic,” Cunningham said. “They’re such great leaders for us. Leaders not just vocally, but also by example.”

In previous seasons, the trio played the perfect supporting class to stars Vaughn and Hollingsworth. But this year, they’re taking a backseat to no one. Proving that they’re more than role players, Moss, Waller and Rorie have been the driving forces behind this 18-10 team. Moss ranks sixth in the CAA in scoring (17.5 ppg), while Waller is eighth (15.2 ppg) and first in steals (2.6). Rorie, a three-year starter, was averaging 13.8 points before a devastating knee injury ended her season after 15 games.  

On Feb. 7, in a win at Old Dominion, both Waller and Moss scored their 1,000th career point. In an emotional pregame ceremony, Waller (pictured, bottom left) and Moss, as well as Rorie, were honored prior to VCU’s Feb. 18 game with William & Mary. When Rorie injured her knee on Jan. 10, she was 16 points shy of 1,000. But Cunningham and her staff presented Rorie with a commemorative ball identical to those given to 1,000 point scorers.

About the only thing these three seniors haven’t done is win a CAA title, a team rallying point this season.

On Feb. 28, Moss and Waller will play what could be their final home game in VCU uniform. Appropriately, they play Old Dominion, the school that has served as their nemesis and knows something about winning CAA titles. The Lady Monarchs won 16 consecutive CAA crowns before Drexel unseated ODU last season.

“If you look at any team in the conference, I can’t think of any three kids that deserve it more,” Cunningham said.

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