Toughness and celebration are powering Brown’s Alyssa Moreland to a career season

In the tussle, she caught an elbow flush in the face, and her head snapped back reflexively. But she kept reaching in the direction she’d last seen the ball until the whistle blew.

When Moreland got up, she felt an unwelcome sensation. “Here it comes,” she thought — a nosebleed, to go with two black eyes that would take over a week to subside.

Moreland subbed out for about three minutes, then returned to the game — surprising some of her teammates after they’d seen so much blood. But her head coach, Monique LeBlanc, wasn’t surprised.

“You with a bloody nose and a black eye is the best look,” LeBlanc told Moreland that day. “I don’t want your nose or your face to be hurt, but you look as tough as you are.”

While Moreland’s black eyes have come and gone, that toughness has always been part of her game. Over the past four seasons, her energy and fire have been hard to match, and her competitiveness has made Brown better in every game and every practice. Now a senior, Moreland is one of the best players in the Ivy League and her team’s emotional thermostat, keeping everyone calm or amping them up.

“Alyssa’s just the type of player everybody wants on their team,” senior guard Grace Arnolie told reporters in November. “There’s no other way to say it. She’s such a workhorse. … She makes things happen.”

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Growing up in Massachusetts, Moreland played several sports, including soccer and football, in addition to basketball. As a fourth grader, she played coed tackle football for a year before her parents, worried about the risk of injury as the boys got bigger, made her switch to flag football. She played flag football for years and even represented Team USA at a tournament in Germany.

Many multisport athletes see their footwork or positioning translate across sports. For Moreland, what carried over the most was her intensity and determination to do whatever it took to win.

But Moreland flew under the radar as a college basketball prospect, in part because she had two surgeries on her right knee and missed her entire junior season at Tilton School in New Hampshire. The COVID-19 pandemic also interrupted her high school career and made the recruiting process harder for both sides. Moreland initially committed to another program, but before her senior year, she reopened her recruitment. Part of her knew the commitment didn’t feel 100% right, and she thought she’d rushed her decision.

After Moreland reopened her recruitment, her AAU coach called LeBlanc to gauge her interest. LeBlanc hadn’t seen Moreland play in a while, so they decided to have her attend a Brown camp that summer.

At the time, LeBlanc was recruiting just her second class at Brown and still establishing her style of play. She was instantly drawn to Moreland’s game and intangibles, but she wasn’t sure the 5’11 forward was big enough to battle some of the Ivy League’s top post players.

But the night after LeBlanc saw Moreland at camp, Moreland’s AAU coach called her again. “She wants to come to camp again tomorrow,” the coach said.

“Nobody comes to camp two days in a row unless they, like, flew in from California,” LeBlanc told The IX Basketball. “… I already am just like, ‘I love this kid,’ and now she’s coming back to camp? How could I love this kid any more?”

The next day at camp, LeBlanc found herself pointing out Moreland’s hustle plays and rebounding to assistant coach Tyler Patch. She decided she didn’t care that Moreland’s college position was still up in the air. “We need this kid in our program,” she thought.

After seeing Moreland again in preseason practices with Tilton, LeBlanc and Patch offered her a spot on the team. She committed just a few days later, sold on the academics and what LeBlanc was building.

Moreland arrived in Providence in the fall of 2022, determined to work as hard as she could and earn LeBlanc’s trust. But adjusting to the pace of college basketball took time, and LeBlanc noticed that Moreland was beating herself up over every mistake. LeBlanc even called Moreland’s former coaches, looking for ways to help her move on faster.

Moreland played just four total minutes in the first seven games of her freshman season. But she played over 16 minutes in the eighth game and stuck in the rotation from there, entering the starting lineup in early January. On the season, she averaged 4.4 points, 4.9 assists and 1.5 steals in 22.1 minutes per game, mostly playing power forward.

“You’re going to be Defensive Player of the Year in this league one day,” LeBlanc told her that season.

Heading into her sophomore year, Moreland wanted to become a stronger and more confident finisher, even though she’d made a whopping 58.6% of her 2-pointers as a first-year.

“Obviously, I’m an undersized post, and there’s ways you can use that to your advantage,” Moreland told The IX Basketball. “But … you have to work for that, and you have to get a ton of reps playing against bigger defenders.”

Enter Tim Moreland, Alyssa’s dad, who played football at Bridgewater State University and would play her one-on-one.

“He’s not even that much bigger than me, but he just is a pain in my butt sometimes when he’s guarding me,” Moreland said. “So … I’m going to give him some credit for the finishing, because he just doesn’t go easy on me.”

As a sophomore, Moreland increased her production to 5.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.9 steals in 26.2 minutes per game. She also continued to develop her perimeter skills, attempting a career-high 1.7 3-pointers per game and dishing out 1.9 assists. And even as an underclassman, LeBlanc remembers her being someone whose energy rubbed off on her teammates.

The following offseason, though, Moreland needed surgery on her right knee — the same one she’d injured in high school. She returned to the court in December 2024 and played in 13 games, only to reinjure her knee against Princeton on Feb. 14. She ended up having season-ending surgery.

Moreland’s intangibles were hard enough for Brown to replace, but Moreland was also playing very well before reinjuring her knee. She came off the bench in her first three games back but rejoined the starting lineup after final exams and found her groove in conference play.

“Ever since she’s been inserted in the starting rotation, there’s no coincidence that the team has risen with that, or they’ve seen results,” Columbia head coach Megan Griffith told reporters in February 2025. “And I just think she’s a really tough, hardworking player. She’s … a total example of, ‘I’m just gonna keep coming at you on both ends.’”

In the 2024-25 season, Moreland averaged 7.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.7 steals in 24.0 minutes per game. She had 21 points on 7-for-9 shooting and 16 rebounds against Dartmouth on Jan. 25. Then she exploded for career highs of 25 points (on 10-for-19 shooting) and 18 rebounds against Penn on Jan. 31, while holding Quakers star Stina Almqvist to 12 points on 5-for-15 shooting and six rebounds.

“What’s awesome about Lyss is … she plays great defense and rebounds, and that feeds her being a great offensive player,” LeBlanc said. “So it’s great that that lights her fire. I love that about her.”

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When Moreland faced the fourth surgery of her career on her right knee, she started to wonder whether she could keep playing. “You have to think about it,” she said.

But she also thought about the moments of magic with her teammates, like a stretch in the win over Penn where everything seemed to go right.

“I want to come back for this moment,” she remembered thinking. “I want to come back to celebrate with my team and have these just exciting moments where your skin is itchy — you know, when you can’t even believe it’s happening.”

So, despite taking a finance internship in Boston last summer, Moreland decided to live on campus so she could use Brown’s facilities and work out with strength and conditioning coach Adrianna Johnson. She would get up at 4:30 a.m., lift at 5, get on the train to Boston at 6:30, get back to Providence around 6 p.m., and fit in dinner and a basketball workout after that. The goal was to build strength in her right leg and improve her agility.

The work has indisputably paid off: Moreland is averaging career highs nearly across the board, is a contender for Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year and hasn’t missed a game. She is averaging 13.7 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 1.9 assists in 25.5 minutes per game. She’s also shooting 54.3% from the field on a career-high 10.9 attempts per game. Her rebounds per game and field goal percentage lead the Ivy League, and she ranks second in steals per game. And with her as the anchor, Brown is 11-4 overall and 3-0 in conference play.

Right away, she made her presence known with 22 points and 11 rebounds in a season-opening loss at Belmont. She had another double-double two games later with 13 points and 14 rebounds at UMBC on Nov. 16. In that game, she singlehandedly grabbed 48.1% of the defensive rebounds that were available in her minutes. No other Ivy Leaguer has reached even 45% this season in at least 20 minutes played.

Even when Moreland doesn’t shoot her best, her all-around game has been impactful. At George Washington on Dec. 6, she had 8 points on 3-for-10 shooting, 14 rebounds, six assists and four steals.

“Regardless of how many points she scores, she’s gonna be on the floor, and I want her on the floor because of those other things that she brings,” Arnolie said that day.

Moreland also started conference play with a bang against Yale on Jan. 5. Despite giving up 6 inches to 6’5 Bulldogs center Mary Meng, Moreland had a season-high 23 points on 10-for-15 shooting, 13 rebounds and three steals. She was so effective on both ends, LeBlanc said, because she understands the nuances of where she should be, factoring in her opponent’s strengths and where the ball is.

Moreland’s only blemishes that day were a few turnovers and a 3-for-8 mark at the free-throw line, where she has often struggled in her career. But those free throws weighed on her. The next day, LeBlanc pulled her aside at the end of practice, and Moreland asked, “Am I in the doghouse?”

“What?” LeBlanc said, taken aback.

“For my free throws,” Moreland responded.

“No,” LeBlanc said incredulously. “If you keep getting 23 and 13, you’ll be in a mansion. I’ll build you one.”

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Moreland is playing mostly center this season, but she’s still using the perimeter skills she developed in her first two seasons. She is involved in handoffs and other perimeter actions, and she can find teammates cutting to the rim. Combine that with the Bears looking to get the ball inside more, and Moreland is more involved than ever in the offense.

When she’s on the court, 28.2% of Brown’s possessions end with her shooting or turning the ball over, which is easily a career high. She is also assisting on a career-high 19.5% of her teammates’ field goals.

“I want her to be just like [Phoenix Mercury forward] Alyssa Thomas,” LeBlanc told The IX Basketball in October. “I think she can make some good decisions with the ball in her hands, and I think she can seal well enough to get good position close to the rim. And if she can’t score it or she’s getting doubled, I trust that she’s going to make a good pass.”

It’s working for Moreland and the Bears because she understands and is confident in her larger role. She has also never hesitated to embrace the physicality that playing as a 5’11 center requires. There’s a joke within the program: When Moreland nails a first-year with a screen in practice or collides with her in the post, a coach might say to the younger player, “Was that your first time? Yeah, you’ll get used to it.”

In addition, Moreland has been able to be a consistent presence this season because she’s figured out how to get herself going. Her defense and rebounding fuel her offense, but it all starts with her body language and how she celebrates great plays, whether they’re her own or her teammates’.

From there, the energy spreads.

“I love playing with Alyssa,” junior guard Olivia Young told The IX Basketball. “… She’s so positive and confident, and then she hypes herself up, she hypes us up. Just being with her on the court is, like, the best thing ever.”

“It’s not just all [her] stats,” first-year guard Charlotte Adams-Lopez told The IX Basketball. “It’s also her presence as a leader is really helpful for us all in those moments when we get down or anything. She’s there to lift the team spirit back up and just get us back in the right mindset.”

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As Moreland’s college career winds down, the big prize of an Ivy League Tournament berth isn’t in the front of her mind. Instead, she’s focused on the same thing she always has, from when she was a first-year battling for a spot in the rotation to when she was a junior contemplating her future: Don’t take any opportunity for granted.

“Our path will be our path no matter what,” she said, referring to the postseason. “… I have two months left, and then I’m going to go play pickleball, so [it’s about] just really enjoying the fight, enjoying the competitiveness, enjoying where I’m at and just being present.”

A workout with her dad over winter break was one of those moments Moreland made sure to hang on to. She knew it would probably be their last one-on-one battle because she won’t be home again until after Brown’s season ends. So she decided to film it for posterity.

“I think I scored like 14 points on him [in] one-on-one,” she said with a laugh. “He didn’t know I was filming, either. He was not happy about that.”

Tim Moreland shouldn’t sweat it, though. His daughter has done that to countless defenders this season, through single coverage and double-teams alike. She has been relentless, and that, more than anything, has made her one of the Ivy League’s best.