Saratoga’s Abby Ray decides on UAlbany
Going into the 2021 condensed basketball season, the future was uncertain for Saratoga senior Abby Ray. By the time it ended, she was committed to a Division 1 women’s basketball program.
The Blue Streak isn’t going far. She’ll become a Great Dane in the coming months.
“UAlbany has always been the place you’d go to and watch college games,” Ray said. “They are always such high energy and I used to go with my friends to watch them play.”
By the time Ray gets to campus in the fall it’s likely that fans will once again be allowed to attend games and events on campus. Her family, friends and coaches can come see her play.
“I am just so happy for her and I’m so proud of her. It’s great that she’s being acknowledged for being such a hard-working player, disciplined and so well-rounded,”
said Saratoga head coach Robin Chudy. “It’s really nice to see her be able to find a nice home. It’ll be nice for all of us to watch her and her family to be around. I think it’ll be a great fit for her.”
Ray’s verbal commitment came towards the end of February while she made her way through the shortened season. Repping Rhode Island gear on her senior day for former teammate Dolly Cairns, Ray will officially sign on her own Division 1 program sometime in May when she signs her letter of intent.
“I feel like coming out of COVID this summer, I didn’t really have that many offers just because I didn’t have very much publicity and that many looks because of the shutdown,” Ray explained.
Abby Ray is not a prototypical point-guard. Saratoga teammate Lauren Patnode once said, “Abby’s an amazing rebounder because she has the mindset that she needs the ball and if someone else gets over her, she’s angry.”
While she’s not going to be the one racking up the points, her court-vision, defense, passing and rebounding are the things that make her stand out.
“She does the things that aren’t necessarily shown. She does all the dirty work,” added Saratoga teammate Natasha Chudy. “I’m so happy for her. She puts in so much hard work and it’s really paying off for her. She rebounds, plays great defense
and it shows now that she’s going D1.”
That aspect of her game, in part, comes from how she came up in the Saratoga program - from how Ray went from being in a support role to Cairns, to taking that same mentality to making those younger players around her better this year as a senior.
“During my freshman and sophomore years I had been that kind of timid player who was more of a pass-first kind of person. Even last year, I could just find Dolly. She was the person to hit,” Ray said.
“This year, our team is so young, but we’re really fast. I feel like me getting them the ball up the court and finding them is similar to what it was like with Dolly, just now our game switched from three-pointers to getting the ball inside every time. This season I’ve also tried to become more of an offensive
threat, so that’s how my game has changed.”
For Coach Chudy, watching her development over the years was less about the stats and more about leadership and hard work.
“Abby is not a selfish player at all. She knows the right play and the right person to hit. She’s such a great leader out on that court and for us, that’s her role, to be a leader. She delivers the ball to everyone and she’s happy to do that and she’s one of the hardest workers on defense,” Chudy said.
When the 2021 season began, Ray was torn between two choices: prep school for a year and continue to build her game, or go to college right away. It became apparent to the Saratoga senior that UAlbany was listening and still wanted her. That would end up being the path she chose.
“UAlbany had been recruiting
me for a while and they were looking for a point guard spot they had open. We reconnected and they said, ‘hey we have a spot if you still want to come here or if you want to go prep we might be able to recruit you for next year,” she said.
UAlbany turned out to be the best option.
“It’s close, my parents can come to the games and I can stay connected with my friends. Their program really fits my style of play, so that’s what the decision ultimately came down to.”
Ray, who is excited to join fellow Section 2 standout Lilly Phillips at UAlbany, intends on studying biology with the intention of becoming a physical therapist.
“I feel like I’ve always been a sports oriented person and that’s why I chose biology and sports sciences to pursue,” she said.