Forget Saturday’s Football Beatdown – This NC State Women’s Hoops Story Hits Different
Football openers can be rough. 34-8 on the road to Virginia? Yeah, that one stung.
Good thing the women’s basketball program is still doing what it does: giving Pack fans something that actually feels good.
Late July, Cary native Audrey Ericksen transferred home from Boston University. She came back as a walk-on. No promises, just a chance to play her last year close to family and focus on basketball. A couple weeks later Wes Moore calls her in, hands her a bill for about $30,000 in tuition, room, and board, and asks if she’s got the money.
She shakes her head.
Moore rips the thing up and yells “No bill! You’re on scholarship.”
Teammates swarm her. Hugs, cheering, the whole locker-room explosion. Ericksen said later that when she watches the video she skips straight to that part because everybody’s face is just pure joy for her. That meant as much as the money coming off her family’s shoulders after years of paying for her career.
This isn’t some random feel-good clip. Ericksen was the all-time leading scorer at Green Level High. She captained Boston for two seasons. She came home to a program that hasn’t missed the NCAA Tournament since 2016 and treated making March Madness like a bucket-list item that now feels like the baseline.
That’s the culture Wes Moore has built since taking over after Kay Yow. Final Four in 2024. Reynolds packed. Play4Kay still meaning something. Players talking about sisterhood and second chances as much as they talk about wins. A local walk-on getting put on scholarship in her first month fits perfectly.
Football’s one game old and already ugly. Women’s hoops is months away from tip-off, but they already gave everybody a homegrown kid who just got the surprise of her life and a team that celebrated it like they won something. That’s a pretty good place to park the frustration for a minute.
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