By Lauren Simpson
Cornell Athletic Communications

Among the various lessons that living through a pandemic has taught us, one that immediately comes to the forefront is the ability to adapt. As the Cornell women's basketball team navigated through the challenges of the past year, there were many unknowns. And as the Cornell women's basketball team excitedly returns to the court and gears up for the 2021-22 season, there remains many unknowns. It is that very adaptability, however, that will allow the Big Red to continue to learn and grow stronger as a team on a daily basis as the season unfolds.

Often times, sports are said to help people prep for life. In the last year, the opposite could be said, as what the Big Red went through off the court can be taken into battle this season.

"If there was a positive, it was that we went through something life-changing together," said Dayna Smith, The Rebecca Quinn Morgan '60 Head Coach of Women's Basketball, who enters her 20th season at the helm of the program. "We talk about how sports are supposed to prepare us for how to handle things in life, so we were able to experience that together."

Now as a unified front, the next challenge becomes figuring out what this team's identity will be, which at the current point in time, is largely unknown. With eight newcomers that will don the Cornell uniform for the first time this season, and the Big Red returning only 27 percent of its minutes, 27 percent of its scoring, and 22 percent of its rebounding from the 2019-20 season, predictions of what the team will look like at this point in time is almost a blank, empty canvas.

"We're young, but it's way more than that," Smith said. "It's a lack of experience and having lost the opportunity of growth to take over that next position. The natural transition of a team was halted, so that's the biggest challenge right now."

In that challenge, however, there is the motivating thought of what this team will put on its canvas.

"There's a hope in what we want our program to stand for and be and what this particular group of 14 women can become – a hard-working, aggressive, energetic team that leads by their play on the defensive end and has a selflessness about themselves on the offensive end where we are playing team basketball," Smith said.

Leading the team in achieving this mantra this season will be tri-captains Theresa Grace Mbanefo, Samantha Will, and Shannon Mulroy. Serving as a team captain and simultaneously balancing the needs of the team with one's individual needs is no small task in any year. For Mbanefo, Will, and Mulroy, who were underclassmen the last time the Big Red took the court and have been catapulted into a leadership role, this holds true now more so than ever.

"When you're an established starter, you can go out and show the team with your play and carry the young people. That's what typical junior and senior leadership is," Smith said. "They're in a different boat right now. They are trying to learn how to be leaders while developing their game due to the lost season."

As the saying goes, strength comes in numbers, and together, the qualities that Mbanefo, Will, and Mulroy have will enable them to lead, even it at first it might be blindly. Mbanefo's contagious, positive bubbly personality combined with being one of two student-athletes on the roster that returns significant game experience has enabled her to help the underclassmen. Will's nurturing, calm presence allows her to serve as a mother figure. Mulroy never takes a rep off, going full-blast at all times and letting her work ethic speak for itself. Together, the trio's strengths balance each other out to create a strong leadership core.

"They are a great group of three. They have different qualities that led them to have been voted on by their teammates," Smith said. "All three of them are very different, but together, I think they can be the perfect leader if they can use their strengths."

And so, ready or not, the Big Red will open its season against Colgate on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena. One thing is for certain, however, Cornell is adversity tested and will do its best to adapt to whatever cards it is dealt this season, just as it did in the last year.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a position-by-position breakdown of the 2021-22 Big Red roster.