By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
Victoria Toomey got to play a role in team success in her freshman season of college basketball.
Individual breakthroughs followed in her sophomore season.
So, it’s somewhat obvious what Toomey would like out of her junior season at Rider University, which got underway this week.
“Now, the goal is to combine the two,” Toomey, a Dunmore graduate and former JB Hoops AAU player out of Riverfront Sports in Scranton, said during an offseason interview, “being successful as a team, but also being able to do what I need to do to help us win.”
Rider is off to an 0-2 start, but there have been positive signs. The Broncs gave a Big Ten opponent trouble on the road in the opener, an 83-69 loss Thursday at Penn State, then they went into overtime Saturday in Philadelphia before falling, 67-58, at La Salle.
Toomey’s early production has been down slightly from a year ago, but her first two outings were hindered by foul trouble.
The team’s starting center played 21 minutes in each of the first two games. Toomey had four points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals against Penn State then four points and four rebounds against La Salle. She is 3-for-9 from the floor and 2-for-2 at the foul line.
Toomey played nearly five times as many minutes as a sophomore, when she started all 23 games for which she was available, than she did the year before when the 6-foot-2 center strictly came off the bench for a 26-4 team that was on a nine-game winning streak when COVID caused the remainder of the season to be canceled.
“Freshman year was just a learning experience,” Toomey said. “I was just kind of gaining my confidence playing behind two seniors.”
Toomey put that experience to good use last season when she finished third in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and 47th nationally with 41 blocked shots.
While Rider was going 8-18, Toomey averaged 6.8 points and ranked 14th in the MAAC with a team-leading 5.6 rebounds per game.
“I was able to come into my own,” Toomey said. “It was definitely an adjustment, going from winning a majority of our games to starting off a little rough.
“But, you could see the growth throughout the season.”
The Broncs were at their best at the end of the season, winning three straight, including knocking off second-seeded Quinnipiac, 62-50, in the MAAC quarterfinals, then battling third-seeded Saint Peter’s before losing in the semifinals, the team’s season finale, 72-67.
Toomey went 8-for-10 from the floor for 17 points and 7 rebounds in the finale, facing a team that she had her career-best game against during the regular season with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
The MAAC All-Academic Team selection missed three early-season games with a concussion.
“I took a weird hit to the head in practice,” Toomey said. “I just thought I was going to get a black eye, but then I couldn’t focus on anything and I had to go into protocol.”
Toomey missed just under two weeks, but she could not be with the team during that time because of a sensitivity to gym lights while recovering.
“I was getting into peak shape right before that,” Toomey said.
Somehow, she returned from the inactivity to be even more productive.
“I wasn’t able to do anything for two weeks, which was frustrating, but I also think it motivated me even more to get back and push even harder,” she said. “I wanted to get back to the point I was at, but even beyond that point because I knew there was growth needed.”
The former second-team, all-state player and NEPABasketball.com District 2 Player of the Year accomplished that goal.
Now, she’s on to another – combining team and individual accomplishments into the same season.
With five starters returning, the Broncos, who went 6-4 in their final 10 games last season, are predicted to move up from seventh to fifth in the MAAC, according to a preseason poll of conference coaches.
Quinnipiac is the favorite in the 10-team conference, followed by Manhattan, Fairfield, Marist and Rider.