Brianna Orlich, CC ’14, stands tall at 5-foot-11, but doesn’t seem intimidating. Students who pass her on College Walk on their way to class may not know that Orlich is an All-Rookie Team honoree and one of the most dynamic and intense players in all of the Ancient Eight.
“Brianna’s a player you wouldn’t necessarily know walking around campus that is one of the toughest athletes we have, but when she gets on the court, she doesn’t back down from anybody,” women’s basketball head coach Paul Nixon said.
Having ended last season with 43 steals—third among all freshmen in the Ivy League—Orlich showed she is never one to back down. She also tried relentlessly to create opportunities for her team, leading the squad with 58 assists.
“She’s a player who is always going after the basketball, trying to get her hand on the ball if the other team has it,” Nixon said. “Some people call players like her scrappy, but I like to call her hard-nosed. She does a really good job finding her open teammates in position to score.”
In her first game as a freshman, she showed her talent by coming off the bench against Long Island University to score 11 points, bring down four rebounds, and get one steal for the Lions. By the third game of the 2010-11 season, she earned a spot as a starter and capped off nonconference play by earning All-Tournament Team honors at the Pepsi Rainbow Wahine Invitational in Hawaii, and putting up a game-high 18 points in a narrow loss to Lafayette.
“Brianna had to shift and start in place of Kathleen Barry in the game against Lafayette,” Nixon said. “She played at small forward and had a very good game. She helped put us in a position to win.”
Orlich continued her success through Ivy League play and played in all of Columbia’s 28 games to end the season with 259 points, putting her third among all Ivy League freshmen. Her 9.3 points-per-game last season makes her the Lions’ leading scorer among returning players for the 2011-12 season.
“We really saw Brianna do a really good job last season, learning how to play the college game,” Nixon said. “She came as a very talented first-year but really, really improved as the season went on.”
Orlich, a high school standout with 1377 career points at Clovis West in Fresno, California, credits her teammates for her transition into a successful college player.
“Tyler Simpson is someone I really look up to,” Orlich said. “Her work ethic and her skill and ability on the court are something I want to emulate.”
Orlich looks to build upon her All-Rookie performance from the 2010-11 season by being an example of work ethic and perseverance to the class of 2015, in the same way Simpson inspired her throughout her freshman year.
“The high intensity and the toughness needed to carry from last year, which our team has already established,” Orlich said. “That is something I take pride in and work for both on offense and defense.”
Orlich’s toughness has a larger impact on team mentality, according to Nixon.
“She is very tough. She tries to outwork opponents, and those intangibles rub off on her teammates,” Nixon said.
Her dynamic play on both sides of the ball and impressive statistics are not just a result from her talent or toughness alone. Orlich looks to continue building on her daily commitment to work ethic as the Lions enter the 2011-12 season.
“Every day, I personally work to make hard work a habit. I try to do that every single day on the court,” Orlich said. “Regardless of how I am feeling, how the day went, hard work has been something engraved in me. I want to have that toughness and work ethic. ”
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