George Washington University Athletics
WBB Preseason Primer: A Bond Born Through Adversity
10/10/2018 4:15:00 PM | Women's Basketball, My GW: Celebrating our Stories
Bautista, Mahoney reflect on the winding path leading to their final season
Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of features previewing the 2018-19 GW Women's Basketball program. Over the next month heading into the season opener on Nov. 8 at James Madison, GWSports.com will highlight four distinct groups in weekly articles. Stay tuned each week for more preseason primer content on the defending Atlantic 10 champions.
Mei-Lyn Bautista and Kelsi Mahoney were a part of the same recruiting class coming into George Washington four years ago. They didn't share much in common aside from their love of basketball and GW.
Now, as they set to embark on their senior season, they can't imagine a life or basketball experience without the other.
"We started off on two separate paths," Bautista, a native of Queens, N.Y. said. "Now it's amazing that as seniors, we get to do things together the way we want to and the way we pictured it."
"It's amazing to see how we've grown through adversity and new things," said Mahoney, who hails from Concord, N.C. "Every aspect of our college career has been a change, but one thing that hasn't changed has been our friendship."
Bautista and Mahoney were roommates in their first year and admitted they didn't have many friends outside of one another. Times strenuous with a coaching change after their initial campaign.
"There was a point where we wondered 'what are we going to do here?'" Bautista said. "We had no idea who the staff was going to be coming in and the main question was are we going to be able to be who we want to be?"
Both could've transferred. Both contemplated it. Other members of the team did, leaving just those two as the only current upperclassmen on the roster. Both decided to stay, in part, due to the relationship they had built in one short year.
"Our relationship did change, and it changed in a good way," Mahoney said. "It made us more mature. Those changes really strengthened our relationship and we stayed because I knew her and she knew me, and we knew we could stay us and better one another with this relationship."
"Looking back now, I don't think without those bumps in the road that I would be as strong as I am now," said Bautista. "I don't think (Kelsi) would have the confidence that she has now."
---
The program had posted on-court success in their freshman year, going 26-7 and advancing to the NCAA Tournament while claiming A-10 regular season and tournament championships along the way. But something was missing off the floor – a new culture needed to be created. That was something that came with new head coach Jennifer Rizzotti and her staff.
"The new staff wanted to better us not only as basketball players, but as people," Mahoney said. "They came in and they really cared about us and improving us as people and basketball players. It made it easier for us to play basketball and be ourselves."
"They put such an emphasis on who we are as people to make relationships with our team, within the athletic department, and network with other people," Bautista added.
Bautista, a gifted and highly-touted point guard, was named to the A-10 All-Rookie team as a freshman, but admitted she lacked confidence and thought she "forgot how to play basketball."
Since that time, she's grown into an all-conference caliber point guard who was named to last year's all-tournament team, a tournament in which she did not commit a turnover in four games. The change has been evident not only internally, but to those close to her.
"I feel like I'm such a different person," Bautista said. "A lot of my family members say that too. My parents tell me I'm such a nicer person and I'm completely different. It's crazy how much of a change that new people can bring into your life."
One of the new people was Mahoney, who moved a "whole six floors away" as a sophomore. A two-time County Player of the Year in her own right, she appeared in just 10 games her first year and averaged about 8.0 minutes per game as a sophomore.
Last year, when the two moved just a floor away from one another, a set-up described by Bautista as "like heaven," Mahoney burst on the scene with 8.5 points per game and garnered an all-tournament designation in leading the Colonials back to the NCAA Tournament.
"Getting to play with Mei is so much easier, not only because I know her better off the court, but on the court it's fun to just play off one another," Mahoney said. "We had to hold one another up because it got to be just the two of us. We've stayed engaged in the moment and love it more."
---
For one final ride, Mahoney and Bautista now live in the same apartment and have meshed personalities. Never is that more evident when you discuss musical tastes.
"Before she met me, she thought Biggie was alive," Bautista said. (Mahoney confirmed as much.) "But now she can rap every word to Cardi B. And when I first met her, I knew maybe two Taylor Swift songs, but now I know her whole album word-for-word."
The two have been to a pair of Taylor Swift concerts, including one in July when Bautista shocked Mahoney by knowing all the words to Swift's hit "Don't Blame Me."
"She didn't know the whole album at this point, so I thought she just knew the famous songs from the new album," Mahoney said. "But I look over and she's leaning up against the chair and knows all the words. I'm thinking she shouldn't know all the words to that song!"
The easy-going tandem has established a bond that is as strong as ever going into their final season. Neither wants to admit their career is ending after this year. Both are pleading to already hold up a season that is less than a month away from starting on Nov. 8.
"My first goal is to slow time down," Bautista said. "These first few days of practice, I've been trying to make it go slower. It's hard to think about because we were just there (as first-years)."
Time will inevitably come when Bautista and Mahoney will don the Buff & Blue for the final time, hopefully in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in their four seasons. But both know they've created a life-long friendship and are primed to leave the program in tremendous position to allow the creation of more meaningful relationships.
"As corny as it sounds, I want it to be a family," Bautista said. "I want to leave a culture that wants to win, is confident but not arrogant, and wants to help each other, but not too much where it's overbearing."
"I want to leave respect for one another," Mahoney said. "There's so many things that this place has given me, so I just want it instilled in the team that the best way we can do that is to show respect.
"This place is special and it means a whole lot to me and Mei. It's going to be really tough to walk away, but just knowing that we can leave it better than we found it, is the best thing for us."
Mei-Lyn Bautista and Kelsi Mahoney were a part of the same recruiting class coming into George Washington four years ago. They didn't share much in common aside from their love of basketball and GW.
Now, as they set to embark on their senior season, they can't imagine a life or basketball experience without the other.
"We started off on two separate paths," Bautista, a native of Queens, N.Y. said. "Now it's amazing that as seniors, we get to do things together the way we want to and the way we pictured it."
"It's amazing to see how we've grown through adversity and new things," said Mahoney, who hails from Concord, N.C. "Every aspect of our college career has been a change, but one thing that hasn't changed has been our friendship."
Bautista and Mahoney were roommates in their first year and admitted they didn't have many friends outside of one another. Times strenuous with a coaching change after their initial campaign.
"There was a point where we wondered 'what are we going to do here?'" Bautista said. "We had no idea who the staff was going to be coming in and the main question was are we going to be able to be who we want to be?"
Both could've transferred. Both contemplated it. Other members of the team did, leaving just those two as the only current upperclassmen on the roster. Both decided to stay, in part, due to the relationship they had built in one short year.
"Our relationship did change, and it changed in a good way," Mahoney said. "It made us more mature. Those changes really strengthened our relationship and we stayed because I knew her and she knew me, and we knew we could stay us and better one another with this relationship."
"Looking back now, I don't think without those bumps in the road that I would be as strong as I am now," said Bautista. "I don't think (Kelsi) would have the confidence that she has now."
---
The program had posted on-court success in their freshman year, going 26-7 and advancing to the NCAA Tournament while claiming A-10 regular season and tournament championships along the way. But something was missing off the floor – a new culture needed to be created. That was something that came with new head coach Jennifer Rizzotti and her staff.
"The new staff wanted to better us not only as basketball players, but as people," Mahoney said. "They came in and they really cared about us and improving us as people and basketball players. It made it easier for us to play basketball and be ourselves."
"They put such an emphasis on who we are as people to make relationships with our team, within the athletic department, and network with other people," Bautista added.
Bautista, a gifted and highly-touted point guard, was named to the A-10 All-Rookie team as a freshman, but admitted she lacked confidence and thought she "forgot how to play basketball."
Since that time, she's grown into an all-conference caliber point guard who was named to last year's all-tournament team, a tournament in which she did not commit a turnover in four games. The change has been evident not only internally, but to those close to her.
"I feel like I'm such a different person," Bautista said. "A lot of my family members say that too. My parents tell me I'm such a nicer person and I'm completely different. It's crazy how much of a change that new people can bring into your life."
One of the new people was Mahoney, who moved a "whole six floors away" as a sophomore. A two-time County Player of the Year in her own right, she appeared in just 10 games her first year and averaged about 8.0 minutes per game as a sophomore.
Last year, when the two moved just a floor away from one another, a set-up described by Bautista as "like heaven," Mahoney burst on the scene with 8.5 points per game and garnered an all-tournament designation in leading the Colonials back to the NCAA Tournament.
"Getting to play with Mei is so much easier, not only because I know her better off the court, but on the court it's fun to just play off one another," Mahoney said. "We had to hold one another up because it got to be just the two of us. We've stayed engaged in the moment and love it more."
---
For one final ride, Mahoney and Bautista now live in the same apartment and have meshed personalities. Never is that more evident when you discuss musical tastes.
"Before she met me, she thought Biggie was alive," Bautista said. (Mahoney confirmed as much.) "But now she can rap every word to Cardi B. And when I first met her, I knew maybe two Taylor Swift songs, but now I know her whole album word-for-word."
The two have been to a pair of Taylor Swift concerts, including one in July when Bautista shocked Mahoney by knowing all the words to Swift's hit "Don't Blame Me."
"She didn't know the whole album at this point, so I thought she just knew the famous songs from the new album," Mahoney said. "But I look over and she's leaning up against the chair and knows all the words. I'm thinking she shouldn't know all the words to that song!"
The easy-going tandem has established a bond that is as strong as ever going into their final season. Neither wants to admit their career is ending after this year. Both are pleading to already hold up a season that is less than a month away from starting on Nov. 8.
"My first goal is to slow time down," Bautista said. "These first few days of practice, I've been trying to make it go slower. It's hard to think about because we were just there (as first-years)."
Time will inevitably come when Bautista and Mahoney will don the Buff & Blue for the final time, hopefully in the NCAA Tournament for the third time in their four seasons. But both know they've created a life-long friendship and are primed to leave the program in tremendous position to allow the creation of more meaningful relationships.
"As corny as it sounds, I want it to be a family," Bautista said. "I want to leave a culture that wants to win, is confident but not arrogant, and wants to help each other, but not too much where it's overbearing."
"I want to leave respect for one another," Mahoney said. "There's so many things that this place has given me, so I just want it instilled in the team that the best way we can do that is to show respect.
"This place is special and it means a whole lot to me and Mei. It's going to be really tough to walk away, but just knowing that we can leave it better than we found it, is the best thing for us."
Players Mentioned
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