Women's Basketball | 11/8/2017 4:03:00 PM
Moon Township, Pa. – The Robert Morris University women's basketball team received National Letters of Intent from Julia Chadwick, Bella Posset, and Natalie Villaflor in the early signing period.
Chadwick, hailing from Ottawa, Ontario, adds to the Canadian pipeline that the Robert Morris coaching staff has focused on over the last few seasons. A multi-sport athlete at Henry Street High School, she also plays volleyball, touch football, and runs cross country in addition to her basketball pursuits. Chadwick helped Team Ontario win gold at the 2016 National Championships and claimed silver in the 2017 Canada Summer Games. Her father, Tom, played basketball at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia.
"Julia (Chadwick) seemed to extremely enjoy her visit," said head coach Charlie Buscaglia. "I remember sitting down with her mother and what she wanted for Julia was what we have with our program – that meant a lot.
"She's the type of player similar to (RMU senior) Megan Smith, who can go inside and outside. She's going to be tough in that position for us, and her work ethic looked very strong. When she came out here and visited with the team, she seemed to fit in very well and feel comfortable with our student-athletes."
Posset brings some local flavor to the program, hailing from nearby Beaver. She topped 1,000 career points as a junior under head coach Greg Huston at Beaver High School and was named to both the WPIAL All-Section First Team and PIAA All-State Second Team. Posset also competes for Drill for Skill on the club circuit and her sister, Lexi, is a junior on the Rider University women's basketball team. A consistent honor roll student at Beaver, Posset plans on studying business at Robert Morris.
"Bella is someone who grew up very close to the university so having her stay close to home is very special," said Buscaglia. "We're very excited about her because of her natural ability to lead. She can play at the point or off the ball, can shoot it well, and has a great knack to get the ball up the floor. Defensively, she has quick hands and does a good job at tipping a lot of passes. She has a good competitive streak in her."
Villaflor is from Ashburn, Va. and plays at Loudoun County High School under head coach Derek Fisher. She averaged 25.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 3.6 steals per game as a junior, earning First Team All-Loudoun, All-Conference, All-Region, and All-State honors, in addition to Fourth Team All-Met accolades. Villaflor also broke the school record for points in a season and eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau in the same year. With Elevate Elite, she won championships at US Junior Nationals (USJN) DC and Hershey, Chicago Nike Nationals, and Charm City. She is a member of both the National Honor Society and Spanish Honor Society, and also competed in cross country and track & field at Loudoun County.
"Natalie is someone we recruited for a while and developed a relationship with," said Buscaglia. "She played on the same AAU program as (RMU freshman) Megan Callahan and it's great to see two student-athletes get reunited again. She's a longer guard for our league and has good ability in the open floor to take it to the basket and be elusive.
"(Natalie) has been very thankful throughout the process. When I called to offer her, she accepted immediately and as a coach who has been doing this as long as I have, that means a lot. I could see the emotion about how much she really wanted to be here.
"Thankfulness and humility are big pillars of ours, and all three of our signees seem to value that."
Robert Morris, coming off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, begins its quest for a third consecutive trip to the Big Dance on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 4:00 p.m. when it travels to Michigan State.
