Shaking her head in disbelief, senior guard Sharneé Zoll scanned the stats sheet, expressing regret over her team's blown lead. The Virginia women's basketball team had just lost a tough game to No. 4 Maryland 74-62, despite leading by as many as 10 points in the first half.
"The thing about our team... we haven't gotten to the point where we get everything," Zoll said. "Everything's not sinking in with us. It still comes out as the same things every single time."
The senior is all about the little things these days. The Cavaliers seem to be on the brink of breaking out and becoming one of the nation's premier women's college basketball teams, winning seven consecutive games before battling the one-loss Terrapins to the bitter end last Friday night.
Virginia is 14-5 overall this season after winning 79-68 at Miami Monday. But they could be 17-2. The team has blown double-digit leads two other times this season against George Washington and South Carolina.
Maybe fixing the little things is what can get Virginia to the top.
"Missed lay-ups, missed box-outs at key times," Zoll said. "[Not defending] threes. Not knowing plays. Not listening -- things that are easy to change, which is always a positive. That's why it's a little bit easier to take because it's things we can change about ourselves. It's not things other teams are doing to us, it's things we're doing to ourselves ... We got to learn to let it sink in. Remember this feeling and in practice, change these things so we can change them in games like this."
Zoll echoed the sentiments of Virginia coach Debbie Ryan, who more than hints at the notion of Virginia becoming a top-tier basketball program.
"We're in it," Ryan said. "We're not walking into these games thinking how much we're going lose by. It's not like that anymore. We're coming in here looking to win and dominate and be strong and get into the top three of the ACC and go win a national championship."
It is apparent that during and after games, Zoll is the on-court personification of Ryan, becoming the vocal leader for the team.
Her leadership role has "gotten bigger," Zoll said. "I have to be a vocal leader. My senior leadership is needed to convey what coach [Ryan] wants. I'm there for the younger players and to get them acclimated to coach's system."
Being a leader sometimes means going above and beyond, and that's what Zoll did against Maryland. While mainly known for her crowd-pleasing assists, Zoll appeared to take on more of a scorer's mentality against Maryland, finishing with 12 points.
The score-more mentality progressed throughout the game, Zoll said. "I don't go into games pre-determining what to do. I just take what the defense gives me."
Perhaps stemming from her shouldering more of the scoring load was a desire to will the team to victory. As Virginia slowly lost momentum and the lead against the resilient Terrapins in the second half, Zoll took on a more intense attitude.
"Being a senior, that's what you're supposed to do," Zoll said. "I didn't try to look frustrated. I was trying to get the girls pumped. All of us didn't bring our 'A' game. I just know how hard we worked. I was trying to keep the energy from the first half going."
Zoll's fiery demeanor carried the Cavaliers to a 56-all tie with six minutes left before the Cavaliers finally lost their grasp on the game for good.
Zoll "had a great game," Ryan said. "She stepped up and shot the ball for me. She ran the team and I thought [Maryland] did a good job, defensively, of changing things up and she recognized everything and was able to, for the most part, get us into our right positions."
In addition to her 12 points, Zoll dished out seven assists against Maryland. Including another seven-assist performance at Miami Monday, Zoll now has 669 career assists, placing her third on the all-time ACC career assist list. First is Virginia great Dawn Staley, who tallied 729 in her career, so Zoll needs to average 5.5 assists over the final 11 regular season games to break Staley's record.
"I used to dream of [breaking the record when I was younger]," Zoll said. "That was one of my goals. It seems weird I'm so close now but I have no clue how I'll feel. I know I'll feel honored to be mentioned in the same sentence with [Staley]."
As an only child, Zoll said basketball has fostered her appreciation of teamwork. It is funny that such a little thing blossomed into a possibly record-breaking career in sharing the basketball.
But then again, Zoll is all about the little things.
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