By: Victoria White

DALLAS (SMU)—Eyes wide and focused, Alicia Froling looks at her teammates in the huddle. After a few seconds of urgent words exchanged, the game resumes. Running down the court, surges of momentum on each side, inspire shouts, swelling from the bench like a sea of stunning waves.

   Froling scores, and the cheers ensue. She snatches a rebound, more cheers. Back and forth, until SMU pulls ahead, victorious. 

    On her way to sign autographs after the Mustangs' gritty win over CSU Bakerfield, Alicia Froling first fist bumps head coach Travis Mays and sits down in front the blue and red banner at SMU's post-game press conference.

    The senior, who came back from devastating injury last season, grabbed the 1,000^th rebound of her collegiate career during the game, fighting every second with swift ferocity and becoming the first woman in program history to earn both 1,000 points and rebounds.

    The Queensland, Australia, native, joined fellow Mustangs and NBA alumni Jon Koncak and Ira Terrell as the only three Mustangs ever to reach the honor.

    "Rebounding is something that I've always prided myself on, and to be the first player to do that is pretty special," Froling said. "And then, the first women's player with two men's players in however long SMU's history is . . . I'm pretty happy with that."

    As the record inched closer, Froling admitted she was aware of each rebound.

    "I knew I needed eight," she said with a laugh. "And then, I got a rebound on the buzzer at halftime and that was my eighth!"

    The milestone was exciting for the entire team, who cheered loudly and expressed support of Froling's achievement. 

    "That just goes to show you her consistency. It goes to show you that she's relentless. She has a tremendous motor," Mays said. "That award is something that she's extremely happy [about]. Her teammates were extremely happy.

They started talking about, 'You're going to get your jerseys hung in the rafters,' all that stuff," Mays said with a smile. "They just got super excited about her getting there, and that's what you want to see. You want to see a young team get excited for their teammates."

    In her return, Froling continues to impress SMU fans and the college basketball scene with her determination, leadership on the court and record-breaking capabilities.

    She is at the top of the SMU leaderboards for career rebounds and double doubles, and now, fourth all-time in American Conference history, passing three-time national player of the year, Breanna Stewart.

    Although the Mustangs initially struggled to ignite the offense, SMU pushed forward in perseverance and came back with force to finish the game strong.

    "Coach kept telling us, 'We're going to win this. We're good.' And then, I think we all believed that," Froling said. "We just have to find our rhythm. I don't think anybody gave up, and that fourth quarter showed that."

    From a young age, she started to develop her rebounding skills with her family.

    "I guess it kind of stemmed from my dad," Froling said. "My dad always told me, 'Hustle after the ball, don't give up.' It was something that I was well at and somebody [said], 'You're a good rebounder.' And then, I kind of took ownership of it."

    Her sophomore year at SMU, in which she led The American with 328 rebounds, was when her rebounding really took off.

    "I really was like, 'No, I can get every single rebound,' and I think something just clicked for me," Froling said. "I think I was a good rebounder before, but then I was like, 'This is what I do.' Growing up, I've always had a good nose for the ball. But, I really locked in probably around my sophomore year."

    In the moments where she is tired or the team is trailing behind, Froling's competive drive and dedication to the team's vision gives her the tenacity to really want the rebound and go for it every time.

    "I just want to win. We want to win," Froling said. "We want to do something special with this program. We haven't been playing the way that we want to play and it's disappointing. Coach has really been on us in practice because he sees the potential in us. But the coaches have a saying like potential is not anything. It's potential, so unless you do something with it [only] then, we can start to build this culture and change this program.

So it's frustrating that we don't play four quarters fully, [although] we have a fight. But, if we can fight for four quarters, then we can be such a special team. We've just got to get it all together."