Many coaches might have been taken aback by the gesture.
When Maeve Gallagher saw her graduate student guard Christiane Frye do it during a Jan. 3 game against Slippery Rock, the second-year Seton Hill women’s basketball coach had a different reaction.
“I called a play, and she waved me off,” Gallagher said. “It made me proud. It wasn’t one of those moments where I’m like, ‘What the heck?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, you run that, man, you felt it in your chest. You run that.’”
Frye, a 2020 Central Valley graduate and Monaca native, said she didn’t change the play for her own benefit.
What Frye said she saw on the court allowed teammate Hallie Cowan, a Chartiers Valley product, to make a shot and expand Seton Hill’s lead in its NCAA Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West Division opener the Griffins would go on to win by 25 points.
“They were playing really good defense, and, yeah, I think they played us really well,” said Frye of the Rock. “Anything I could get to get us a better lead at the time, I was going to do.”
It has been a common theme for Frye and Seton Hill this season.
The 5-foot-5 guard is averaging a team-high 18.3 points per game, which is good for third best in the PSAC. She is also averaging 4.8 rebounds per game with a team-high 51 assists to go along with 22 steals and seven blocks.
“I would say my strength is in just doing whatever it takes in a particular game,” Frye said. “Sometimes teams will go under screens, so that means I have to shoot behind them, or they’ll go over so I have to attack and get downhill. So it’s really just reading the defense and doing whatever it takes.”
With Frye leading the way for a roster loaded with 10 former WPIAL players, Seton Hill is off to its best start in program history with a 14-1 record and an 8-0 mark in the PSAC West. The Griffins moved into sole possession of first place in the west division with a 92-68 victory over Clarion Wednesday night.
“She is a relentless competitor that genuinely is a team-first kid,” said Gallagher of Frye. “It’s not often you get the chance to coach a player that understands that they are a big part of our success and understands that they have a big role as being a big scorer.
“She’s always going to get the best defender, but she knows that’s her job, and she’s still team first, and I think that’s sometimes hard to come with a best player that has been such a dominant player since her freshman year.”
Frye burst onto the scene with the potential to become one of the PSAC’s top scorers when she averaged 10.3 points per game in 2021 as a sophomore and was named the conference’s top first-year player. She went on to only get stronger, averaging 16 points per game the following year before scoring 17.9 points per contest a season ago.
“She’s a good scorer because you never really know where the little weasel is going to go,” Gallagher said. “She just moves. She is creative. She is fast. She is so dynamic. She is shooting the ball exceptionally well for us this year.”
Frye is shooting a career-best 47% from the field and 32% from beyond the 3-point arc.
“You have to guard her at all three levels,” Gallagher said. “I think the best attribute of her game is she will fight to the death to get a W.”
While Gallagher said Frye has always been a player who leads by example, her ability to take on added vocal and cerebral leadership roles this season has made her even more dangerous.
“Her evolution as a leader and the way she’s grown through the last two years has just been tremendous,” Gallagher said. “It is all attributed to the effort she has put in. She works relentlessly herself on and off the court. She values her teammates’ opinions, and she values our opinions. She is in my office constantly wanting to watch film, wanting to get better.”
Frye said she, too, takes great pride in her growth as a leader.
“Just forming so many connections with my teammates, as well as my coaches, and being able to have a big role on the team, I’m not thinking too much about it, because I’ve never been one to talk about myself too much,” Frye said. “I’m just having to do whatever it takes, and leadership is one of those things, so I really dived into that role, and I really value it as well.”
As much as she has valued her own strong play, Frye said she has relished watching her teammates flourish this year.
Twin sisters Helene and Hallie Cowan are averaging 14.9 points and 14 points per game, respectively. Hallie has made a team-high 36 3-pointers this season and is shooting 39% from beyond the 3-point arc, while Helene is shooting 33% from distance.
The juniors were key members of a Chartiers Valley program that won three consecutive WPIAL championships in addition to a PIAA title in 2019.
Sophomore forward Mia Kalich has also flourished this season for Seton Hill, averaging 12.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, while freshman guard Shaye Bailey and junior guard/forward Abby Mankins have also contributed meaningful minutes.
Bailey, a former Freedom standout, is averaging 6.5 points per game in a reserve role, while Mankins, a Greensburg Salem product, is chipping in 6.1 points and 3.7 rebounds per outing.
“It’s really cool, and it’s really familiar playing with them,” Frye said. “It’s almost like I’ve known them longer than I have. The twins come from an extremely successful organization. I don’t know that they lost many games in their high school careers, and then we have a new addition in Shaye. I think we all have a big competitor in us coming from the WPIAL.”
Gallagher, too, is proud of that connection.
A Brookline native, Gallagher played three WPIAL seasons at Seton LaSalle before transferring to Perry Traditional Academy in the Pittsburgh City League for her senior year.
Gallagher’s father, Bill, was Perry’s football coach for 13 seasons, leading the Commodores to seven City League championships and a pair of PIAA semifinal berths.
“It’s neat to see kids that have played against each other come together and compete at a high level,” Gallagher said. “Getting to play and win in your backyard is fun for all of us.”
With her final season winding down, Frye said she and her teammates are focused on one thing — winning a PSAC championship.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever had a 13-1 start,” Frye said. “We don’t have a ton of expectations because we haven’t really had a season like this in the past. We are aware of how good we are, and we are all really excited about where this is going to go.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.