Traylor-Walkers make Radford women's basketball a sister act (2024)

RADFORD — This season, the Radford women’s basketball team has been a sister act.

Ashlyn Traylor-Walker is once again the Highlanders’ standout. The sophom*ore guard averages 15.8 points and was named this week to the All-Big South first team.

But this season, two of her sisters are also on the squad.

Pa’Shence Traylor-Walker averages 5.6 points and has started 20 games. Like Ashlyn, she is a sophom*ore guard — but she graduated high school the year before Ashlyn did. After not attending college in the 2021-22 season, Pa’Shence resumed her basketball career last season at a junior college.

Adelyn Traylor-Walker, a freshman guard, is redshirting this season and thus has not seen any game action.

Radford is the only NCAA Division I women’s basketball team with three sisters on its roster.

“It’s pretty special, … being at this level, playing together,” Pa-Shence said as she joined her sisters for an interview this week. “It’s kind of cool.”

The Indiana natives have enjoyed being together on the third-seeded Highlanders (13-17, 9-7), who will play sixth-seeded Winthrop in the Big South quarterfinals at 8 p.m. Thursday at High Point.

“It’s kind of normal for us to be on the same team because we’ve grown up … playing together all of our lives,” Ashlyn said.

The sisters are the daughters of Danielle Traylor and Jeff Walker. Ashlyn used to have her mother’s last name, while Pa’Shence and Adelyn had their father’s last name. But with the three of them all being at Radford this season, they decided to use the same last name.

“I’m glad that it’s the same,” Ashlyn said.

Their parents also have another daughter — former Virginia Tech guard Kayana Traylor, who helped the Hokies make the 2023 Final Four. The eldest sister is now playing professionally in France but will be heading this spring to the training camp of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.

Ashlyn, Pa’Shence and Adelyn sat down together with The Roanoke Times to talk about what it has been like to be both sisters and college teammates this season.

Q: Pa’Shence and Adelyn, when you decided last spring to commit to Radford and join Ashlyn here, was there any trepidation over how this would work?

Adeleyn: No. We were just excited to get here and be together and play together.

Q: Are any of you living together here?

Pa’Shence: No. We were thinking about maybe next year living together, but I’m not sure how that’s going to work out yet. We already spend enough time together, so maybe living together is a little [much].

Ashlyn: But honestly, we don’t spend as much time together as I initially thought we would. We all have our own lives. We all do our own thing. … I [do] hang out with them more than some of my other teammates.

Q: So how much are you with each other off the court?

Pa’Shence: During the summer, we were always going to the river and floating down it. During the summer, we hung out more than we do now. I have a boyfriend and I’m hanging out with him a lot and they’re doing their own thing, too.

Ashlyn: Over winter break we hung out more than we do now because life just gets busy with school and then we’re here [at the Dedmon Center] almost five, six hours a day. I [will] really just be hanging out with my cat whenever I go home.

Q: Has your relationship deepened now that you are all together again?

Ashlyn: I would say so. Sorry [to her sisters, laughing], I’m taking all the answers! We had a year to grow and be apart from each other because we have all lived in this one household our whole lives. So having that year to really grow and separate from each other, I feel like our relationships now with each other are a lot better. It’s a lot different. We’re still sisters, we have our arguments here and there, but it’s nothing like …

Pa’Shence (finishing Ashlyn’s thought): … what it was growing up because we’d always fight and argue over clothes.

Adelyn: C’mon, we haven’t grown out of that yet.

Q: Is it weird for you guys to see Adelyn as an adult now?

Ashlyn: No. But she’s still the baby.

Q: Ashlyn, when they came here did you remind them that this was your team and they were the newcomers?

Ashlyn: They look up to me in a way, just because I was here for a year, so I [did not] feel like I needed to do that.

Q: Pa’Shence, as the older sister, do you want to refute that you look up to her?

Pa’Shence: I do look up to her a lot.

Q: When the season started, was there a conscious effort to not exclude your teammates, who might have worried that you guys would pass each other the ball all the time or hang out with each other all the time?

Ashlyn: It wasn’t a conscious thought. Whenever I’m playing basketball, if I see somebody open I’m going to throw them the ball no matter who it is.

Pa’Shence: During the summer, we all hung out as a team to get to know each other. So it was never …

Adelyn: … just us three.

Q: Have you learned anything new about each other this season?

Pa’Shence: Both of them have really matured. That’s what I’ve learned.

Ashlyn: Pa’Shence, she’s always been kind of like the mother role. I feel like I’ve [now] seen, ‘OK, she’s a person, she actually has feelings.’ I’ve seen a different side of her.

Q: Do you keep in touch with Kayana in France?

Ashlyn: She’ll always text me like, ‘I’m proud of you, keep working.’

Q: Does she watch your games on ESPN Plus?

Pa’Shence: When she has the time, she definitely does because her and our mom text in the group chat everything that we’re doing during the game.

Adelyn: If Pa’Shence gets a rebound, it’s, ‘Good rebound, P!’

Q: Ashlyn, having been with Kayana in the New River Valley last season, have you missed her this year?

Ashlyn: I miss being able to just go to her house and hang out with her — and her cat. I’d bring my cat and we’d have a play date. I definitely do miss her a lot.

Q: What has been the best part of you three being together this year?

Adelyn: [When there are] hard times, I can just run and have a hard time with my sisters, just knowing that they’re always there for me. It’s not a phone call, it’s [walking over to them].

Ashlyn: I also like seeing how much we have all grown, just in a year’s time without each other. We are growing up and it’s fun to see us mature.

Q: Are there any times it’s bad, all being together?

Ashlyn: We don’t really hold grudges against each other, so it’s never too heavy … if we have an argument.

Q: After a game, do you ever say, “I was open, why didn’t you pass me the ball?”

Pa’Shence: A few times.

Ashlyn: Yes, for sure. And I’m the worst because I am like, “Pa’Shence, why are you doing that? Why aren’t you doing this?”

Pa’Shence: She knows she can because …

Ashlyn: … because we’re sisters. I don’t do it to my other teammates. I shouldn’t do it her just because she’s my sister. … [But] I see so much potential in her, so whenever I am giving her critiques or something, it’s because I know that she has it in her.

Pa’Shence: It’s coming from a good place.