Dolly Cairns named to Atlantic-10’s AllRookie team

KINGSTON, RI » Dolly Cairns can add another accomplishment to her impressive resume. On Tuesday March 9, the Atlantic-10 Conferenced announced the winners of their regular season awards, with the Saratoga Springs alum finding her way onto the AllRookie Team.

“For Chicken, which I call Dolly, I can remember sitting in her home and talking about the vision that I had for her and what she wanted from a program,” said Rhode Island Head Coach, Tammi Reiss. “To come in right from the jump as a freshman and be recognized, that vision is coming to fruition. We have a four-year process for her and I couldn’t be more happy for her.”

The Rhody squad was full of honorees, including Reiss being named Coach of the Year, Emmanuelle Tahane was named Co

Player of the Year, to the the All-Conference First Team and to the Academic AllConference team. MariePaule Foppossi was named to the second team as well. In addition, Reiss had her contracted extended to lead the program until the 20252026 season.

“First and foremost, this comes from the coaches, so whenever you receive an accolade from a coach, who understands the game, who knows the game, and I’m not saying the media don’t, but a true coach that can see some things that fans or media do not, it’s special,” Reiss said. “I am so proud of our players and their accomplishments.”

To begin the season, Cairns had to adjust to a new role, in a new city, while still doing what she does best - hitting threes.

“Dolly knew coming in that she had some things to learn. She is a realist and she’s a great communicator with how she’s feeling and what she wants and she’s very easy to talk to,” Reiss said. “Coming off the bench, I think it gave her a little bit of ease, as to seeing the flow of the game and what we were doing. Now she’s very comfortable and she could start or come off the bench.”

Her All-Rookie nod comes after playing 18 regular season games and coming off the bench in seventeen of them. By no means did that mean she wasn’t going to see the court. She was just as invloved as any player on the Rams roster. She is Rhody’s sixth women.

“I could get really greedy and say that I wanted Dolly to be Freshman of the Year or Sixth Player of the Year, but she earned this and she deserves it,” Reiss said. “Our sixth man is our starter, I have six starters.”

In her 18 games, she would average 27.6 minutes per game. She put up a season-high 22 points on January 23 against St. Bonaventure and hit a seasonhigh, six three pointers in a game, twice. The first was against St. Bonaventure, the other was against George Mason.

In total, Cairns went 42for-102 from behind the arc, good for 42.2%.

“I told her that she’s an impact player right away. Number one, she has to make shots for us. She is a tremendous three-point shooter. She is a green light anytime she’s open, she is to shoot the ball,” Reiss added. “I can’t tell you how many games that we won where Dolly hit the big three to turn the tide. Whether it was a UMass, whether it was at Richmond, she just hit big shots as a freshman, big shots that we needed to win games.”

On January 31 against Saint Joseph’s, Cairns hit a big three in the final minute of overtime, as well as two free throws, helped Rhode Island secure the win.

“Her destiny has been fulfilled this year, for me, and now the skies the limit for her,” Reiss said. “I want her get better defensively which we will. Every year as you go on you get better.”

“She’s right where I thought she would be her freshman year. In fact, I didn’t think she would be as comfortable taking the big shots as she it. She has no fear.”

In her initial comments about the season awards and in her congratulatory tweet, Reiss referred to her freshman standout by the nickname “Chicken.” So while Dolly was her high school nickname, we may have to get used to a new one for college.

Reiss explained how that all came about.

“The story about Chicken - they play this game in practice with a shooter and a last shot and they call it Chicken,” she said. “I started calling her Chicken because I thought they were calling her that because she looks like Chicken Little, and she does. Her little cherub face with the glasses, google Chicken Little and Dolly looks just like Chicken, so it’s really a two-parter of why we call her that. Really it’s from the game they play in practice, but I thought it was because she looks like Chicken Little.”

This season, the Rams went 11-7 overall and will now head to the A-10 quarterfinals in Richmond, VA on March 12. As one of the top four seeds, Rhody earned a double-bye in the tournament from the playin games. Their opponent is currently undetermined. The Rams last played on February 28 in a 87-68 win over VCU.

“We really haven’t done anything and we have so much more to accomplish,” Reiss said of her hopes for the weekend tournament. “Fourth place is not a champion. We need to keep them hungry and keep them motivated because it’s hard to have a fourteen day layoff before you play again.”