Over the past few years, the sound of basketballs hitting the hardwood has become an hourly staple in the Robertson Center. 

Since her arrival, senior team captain Lauren Fulenwider has spent countless hours in the gym getting shots up. At first, it was feeding The Gun—a basketball rebounding and passing machine—in an empty gym with the rhythmic pop of the machine sending the ball back to Fulenwider. 

Over the past few years, the soundscape has grown to include more bodies and more basketballs as the workout sessions have expanded to include more players. 

"That's the thing I tell them, if you're going to be in the gym, bring one of your teammates with you," Southwestern head women's basketball coach Greta Grothe says. "I think Lauren has really gotten that across to everyone. This is the second year her teammates have voted her team captain and she's one of the best leaders we've ever had." 

Fulenwider was an All-SCAC First Team selection last year after leading the conference in scoring at 16.2 points per game, finishing third in the nation in 3-pointers made with 44 on a 35.5 percent clip. Basketball is too much of a team sport to say the Pirates will only go as far as Fulenwider can take them, but her leadership and ability to score off the dribble or catch from long range provides a lot of space on and off the court for a young Pirate team to grow into. 

"Our freshman class is really good and I'm excited about them," Fulenwider proclaims. "I think they're going to get a lot of minutes and have some reliable players. It surprised me that we have so many more people who can score now, and our returners have gotten so much better." 

For a third consecutive year, Southwestern will open the season with a freshman starting point guard after losing returner Emily Edwards to injury. In her place, Grothe will start Ellie Ward, a 5-foot-6 point guard from Waco, Texas. The Pirates will also start 5-foot-9 freshman Jada Hollie on the wing, taking the spot of graduated all-conference forward Noel Pratts. 

"I trained a little with Ellie over the summer and she's learning everything quickly," Fulenwider says. 

"Elie has been asking all the right questions and picking everything up quickly. It's definitely going to be fun," Grothe adds. "Jada is a bulldog getting to the rim. She can finish and shoot from three, which is something we haven't had in that forward spot in a while. Plus, her basketball IQ is really high and she can guard three positions."

Practices in preseason have been spirited and competitive with more firepower expressed in a wider variety of skill sets than Southwestern has had in previous years. 

"We definitely have more offensive threats than we've had in the past," senior team captain Taylor Carney, Southwestern's only four-year player on the roster, says. "We have more people who can shoot, more people who can get to the basket, and more people who are offensive-minded." 

On the perimeter, junior Mia Paz has looked more comfortable in the offense. Paz transferred from the NCAA Division I University of Texas Rio Grande Valley last year after redshirting her freshman season and is her high school's all-time leading scorer. Newcomers Kelsey Boyette and Alexis Flores give the Pirates a pair of outside shooting guards with size at 5-foot-9, with the latter leading the team in defensive deflections during practices in the preseason. Combo guard R'Yani Vaughn returns with the ability to play on or off the ball, and the team expects Mat Harper to provide a boost in the middle of the season after recovering from a knee injury. 

In the frontcourt, sophomore Princess Roberts was one of the most devastating screen setters and hardest workers in the SCAC last season and returns with more patience, a better feel for the college game, and more spacing around her. Hallie Mayfield is an undersized forward whose hard work and hustle should earn minutes, and Carney and junior Reece Sandercock, the team's third captain, provide diverse skill sets and experience. 

"We call Reece and Taylor the Sandercock-to-Carney connection," Fulenwider says, referring to a nickname inspired by a recap from last year's win over Colorado College in which the frontcourt pairing combined for several key plays in the fourth quarter. "Those two worked together really hard over the summer and they're going to surprise a lot of people. They've both stepped into leadership roles, which is awesome." 

Carney started her career as a 3-point gunner with no conscience as a freshman, playing limited minutes due to limited defense. In the years since, she's transformed herself into one of the better defensive players on the team, using improved mobility and a 6-foot frame with good length to deter opponents while still stretching out to the 3-point line on offense.

Sandercock is a solid big who works hard inside on defense, averaging eight rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game last season, with good footwork and touch, as evident by her 44.2 percent shooting from the field and 85.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line. 

"Reece is a quiet leader but she's really impacted the team in a positive manner. She understands what we're trying to do and is speaking up more in practice," Grothe says. "And Taylor has become a really good defender. It's going to be really hard to shoot over both of them." 

"Reece is always invited to the block party," Fulenwider jokes. "She has these Elastigirl arms. You don't want to go into the paint with her.' 

The pair did more than get shots up over the summer, focusing on running to improve their mobility and working in the weight room three days a week to set the physical tone Southwestern wants to set. 

"We want to be more intense this year. We're going to get on the floor, get in your face, and be a real blue collar team," Grothe says. "I've always been a defensive coach and I haven't been happy the last two years with the way we've defended. We need to hold teams under 27 percent shooting from the 3-point line, keep our turnovers down, and rebound. If we can do that, we'll be in a good position." 

With a deeper roster, Grothe has more tools at her disposal when constructing lineups, but perhaps the greatest addition is time. Now a year removed from the condensed season in the middle of the pandemic, the Pirates have time to let one of the conference's youngest teams grow together.

"More people are going to get opportunities because we have more games," Grothe says. "Last year, we didn't have time to experiment. Now, we can tweak lineups and let players earn their role every day." 

"It's so huge to have a good chunk of games before conference starts so we can get all the kinks out," Fulenwider says. "Last year, we didn't have time to figure that out." 

To figure out all the new ingredients that make up the roster, Southwestern needs to add one more thing to the symphony its conducting: communication. Just like you can tell the quality of bread by the sound of the crackle it makes as you tear into it, you can tell the growth of the team by the sounds of it communicating on the court to work as a team. 

"We've only had a few people who've gone through a regular basketball season before, so communication is something we really need to work on," Carney says. "We need to remind each other to focus on the little things like diving on the floor, focusing on the process, boxing out and rebounding; doing everything collectively." 

If the Pirates can master those little things, sounds of the Southwestern crowd's applause will reward the noise from the work done in an empty gym.