WILLIAMSBURG — Tribe fans lined the streets outside Kaplan Arena Monday afternoon to await the arrival of the women’s basketball team. Through a sea of “Go Tribe” chants and “We Are the Champions” blasting through speakers, Tribe faithful welcomed home the 2025 CAA Champions.
The team made school history as it earned the school’s first-ever berth to the NCAA Tournament in Washington, D.C. over the weekend.
Road to the Championship
The ninth-seeded Tribe played four games in four days to win the championship. With games against eighth-seeded Hofstra, No. 1 seed North Carolina A&T, and No. 4 seed Drexel University, the Tribe found themselves with a championship on the line when the team faced No. 3 seed Campbell in the final.
“Everybody was just chanting, ‘I believe, I believe’ pregame. We were trying to get hype to get the job done,” senior guard Bella Nascimento said.
Sunday, Campbell went on a 14-0 run to start the game, but the Tribe began a second-half comeback behind Nascimento. The senior guard scored eight straight Tribe points and then found graduate student Rebekah Frisby-Smith for a corner 3-pointer at the horn. Frisby-Smith’s third triple of the quarter closed the gap to 53-49.
“Emotions were flying through the roof. In moments like that, everyone just has to keep their composure. If you get too up, they can go on a run real quick. But you can’t get too down because you lose your lead. We stayed calm and just tried to remind ourselves to stay together,” Nascimento said.
William & Mary earned its first lead of the game in the fourth quarter. The teams swapped the lead back and forth before Nascimento scored eight of the Tribe’s final 10 points, including the last four. Her step-back jumper with 11.7 seconds remaining provided the final margin, and the Tribe could finally celebrate the school’s first title.
CAA Champions
Nascimento earned the MVP trophy for her standout performance.
“For me, it’s either kill or be killed, eat or be eaten. I talk with Coach E all the time about being a shark or a fish and I’m a shark. Whoever is in front of me, I do my job to dominate whatever the matchup is and I go and I see red. I don’t care who you are, it’s feeding time,” Nascimento said.
Coach Erin Dickerson-Davis, who is in her third season at the helm of Tribe women’s basketball, was greeted off the bus with congratulatory hugs. Her contract was extended through the 2029 season last August.
Coach Dickerson-Davis addressed the crowd after the game about her team’s journey over the course of the season.
“Yes, this is history, but nobody sees all the stuff that goes into that moment. We’ve had ups and downs and nobody knows how high and how low it can get. I think that is what brings the emotion out is just knowing that you are supported in everything that you do, that people take chances on you, and you are able to do right by those decisions. It’s a really cool and surreal moment,” Dickerson-Davis said.
While the Tribe may have just arrived back in Williamsburg Monday, the team has a quick turnaround, with an early flight to Texas scheduled for Tuesday morning. William & Mary will take on 16th-seeded High Point University in the First Four in Austin Thursday, March 20.
“We’re moving on adrenaline right now. I still haven’t quite wrapped my brain around the fact that we won our conference championship. We truly just have to believe that all of this is possible,” Dickerson-Davis said.
Local watch parties around Williamsburg are being planned for Thursday’s matchup. For more information, visit TribeAthletics.com.