Women’s Basketball Preview: Seniors Reminisce On Journey, Aim For More

Steve Miller
Sports Editor

Guard JaVonna Layfield sat in the women’s basketball film room at the end of a lighthearted interview and got serious for just a moment.

“Any time Jenna shoots the ball I think it’s going in,” she said, her expression for once settling in on complete sincerity.

Layfield and guard Jenna Burdette, the two four-year seniors on Dayton’s team, have been through it all: The jubilation of an Elite Eight trip their freshman year. The dismal campaign the next season that led to an abrupt end to the Jim Jabir era. Another run to the NCAA Tournament after Atlantic 10 regular season and tournament championships. And now, a thus-far perfect A-10 record with a chance to clinch the conference for the second-straight season on Sunday afternoon — senior day at UD Arena.
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“Any time Jenna Burdette shoots the ball, I think it’s going in,” Layfield doubled down to make sure she was understood.

“Or if she’s got the ball in her hands, something good is going to happen.”

That’s the kind of confidence that only stems from the aforementioned four years of forging. And it’s a complete buy-in to coach Shauna Green’s “process” — itself an exercise in confidence that by winning the moment, success will take care of itself.

“We all know that if we win then we’re guaranteed a share of [the A-10 title],” Burdette said.

“But that’s not really our focus. Our focus is just winning every game.”

Burdette, Layfield, and redshirt senior forward Alex Harris are primed to use that focus to lead this team on another postseason run. But before any of those accomplishments are realized, the three seniors will be honored Sunday before their penultimate tip-off at UD Arena.

“Unreal. I still can’t believe it. I’ve been in college for so long,” Harris leaned back with a smile, reminiscing on her five academic years. Her incredulity at the passed time echoed that of her fellow seniors.

“But I’m excited. I’ve got a lot of people coming. My mom said there’s about 50 people coming for me.”

Harris transferred from Penn State after her sophomore season, and took the court last year, complementing then-senior Saicha Grant-Allen in the post. And although she’s only been at UD for three years, she’s undoubtedly happy that this is her home.

“They’ve welcomed me, never let me feel like an outsider,” she said.

“I’ve been treated as an equal senior like I’ve been here four years as well.”

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Being an equal, it turns out, also means being subject to your teammates’ personality assessments.

“She’s just too cool for life,” Layfield said of Harris. “She’s supposed to be an ‘80’s baby. She should have been.”

“One time, I cracked up laughing, she got a rebound in a game. And I knew, she had a look in her eyes, you know when somebody’s not going to pass the ball. And she went coast to coast,” Layfield recalled.

“From that point on she thought she could start the offense. She called herself PG Al. I was like ‘Girl, if you don’t put your butt on that block and post up’.”

Harris was able to clue-in on the finer points of Layfield and Burdette’s relationship, though.

“They room together, so they’re always picking on each other,” Harris said.

“We’re all sisters, but since they’ve been [here] since the start you can tell one’s big and one’s the little sister.”

“Jenna has people fooled. Everybody thinks she’s just so quiet and sweet and innocent,” Layfield started.

“I left my door unlocked, and I was showering, don’t think anybody’s home. And next thing you know I just feel this ice cold water. I just got doused in ice cold water, and I was screaming. Just pranks like that. We play pranks on each other all the time.”
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Be it pranking and running or picking and rolling, these seniors play with a confirmed chemistry that they don’t want to end.

“The three of us, we’re so different that it’s easy for us to work together,” Layfield explained.

“It’s the same mindset, but different personalities, different backgrounds, different cultures.”

“We don’t want that last game to come, we try not to think about it,” Harris said.

“The goal is just to win, and to keep winning.”

At 14 straight right now, the Flyers have done that well.

And whether or not they all say it as explicitly as Layfield, every Dayton player is brimming with the confidence that this team can lead itself back to success on the national stage.

“I think that’s why we’ve won so many straight right now because we have that determination and that want and that heart to win,” Harris said.

“So I don’t see that last game in our near future and I don’t want to see it.”

Photo Taken By Roberto De La Rosa-Finch/Online Editor