Old Gold & Black photoSports Editor
Old Gold & Black photo
Hollifield will be relied on to shoot from long range.
Toughness and durability. These are two words that describe Gretchen Hollifield, one of only two seniors on this year's rebuilding women's basketball squad. She, along with Val Hodge, are the veteran players expected to provide leadership for a team full of expected healthy players into the next level of ACC play.
Hollifield, 5-5, will run the point once again. Hopefully this season she will not have to put up with the demands of not having a backup and playing every minute but three in the games in which she played. She bore the burden of being one of the few consistently healthy players on the team. What makes this impressive is that Hollifield missed the first six games of the season due to finger surgery, but did not miss another contest the rest of the year. Her 40.3 minutes per game average was more than "a game a game." Hollifield did this by playing in two overtime games during the season. In addition, she did not miss one moment of conference play.
The scrappy player's forte is her playmaking abilities. She averaged a school-record 7.0 assists per game last season, which put her first in the ACC and sixth in the nation. Hollifield will be the key to getting the ball inside to leading scorers juniors Tracy Connor and RaeAnna Mulholland.
In a game against Canisius last season, Hollifield dished out 16 assists, breaking the Demon Deacon record by four and tying for the highest number of assists in the NCAA all season.
The reason that Hollifeld was last year's team most valuable player was that she does more that just dish out assists. She averaged 10.0 points per game as well. Most of these points came from behind the three point arc, where she hit 42 percent of her attempted shots.
Against N.C. State last season, she recorded a career-high 23 points, plus added five rebounds, 10 assists and two steals.
Hollifield is known as a hustler, and she justified this reputation last year, when despite her small stature she pulled down 3.5 rebounds per game and had 28 steals on the season.
Ironically, the key to Hollifield's success this season is rest. She will be even more productive if she is not going into every game tired and knowing that she will not get a rest during the contest.