It only took the first half of the regular season for the Utica Women’s Basketball team to surpass their previous season’s win total. The team’s leading scorer, Vanessa Hall, is in her third season of balling out for the Pioneers and is continuing to cement herself in the record books by becoming the fastest in program history to reach 1,000 career points.
In her third collegiate year, Hall is comfortably in position to be the team’s leading scorer for the third year in a row. Starting as a freshman would add pressure and make the game much harder for most people, but not for Hall. In the 2023-24 season, freshman Vanessa Hall played in all of the team’s 26 games, starting in all but one game and only had one game with less than 10 points.
“I’ve been here before.” Hall said. “Pressure does exist, it’s not in the front of my mind.”
After accumulating 825 points in her first two seasons, the 1,000 points mark seemed almost inevitable. On Jan. 6, the Pioneers hosted the Russell Sage Gators to Miga Court for their first Empire 8 conference matchup of the 2025-26 season. It was in the third quarter when Hall hit a free throw to officially add a comma to her career point total.
Now in her junior year, all of her success puts her in a very clear leadership role among the team. Hall has proudly taken on this responsibility and is able to identify some familiar former teammates that she was able to look up to as a younger player and now recognizes as leaders she is thankful for.
“There were definitely leaders from my freshman year. Krissy Geraci, Julia Rotando, Hope Halvarson,” Hall said. “They were all hard teammates to lose.”
While the individual success and achievements are nice to celebrate, Hall remained humble and dedicated to both her team and all those that support her.
“I love our team, I think it’s pretty to be held accountable to be a great leader,” she said.
Hall’s career has not been without its struggles. While she has been lucky to not miss much time on the court due to injury, there have been exceptions. Similar to her mindset on the court, she gave a lot of credit to those around her for supporting her through hurdles.
“Last year I missed three games after I tore my PCL,” she said. “It would’ve been tough without my teammates, coaches and trainer Dawn Corbin.”
After already achieving success and impressive numbers, Hall is still reaching for more.
“The goal is to get to the playoffs and keep extending our seasons, this year and especially next year,” Hall said.
