By Marc Raimondi
On April 16, 2007, Murray was flying back to her school, Virginia Tech, from Queens. It was the Monday morning following a fun weekend – Murray and her family were celebrating her sister Breanna's Sweet 16. There was inclement weather that Sunday and she was unable to get on an early enough flight Monday, so Murray was going to miss her 9:05 a.m. class.It wasn't until she got on the plane that she found out how lucky she was. The television on the back of Murray's seat was on and it she saw very familiar scenery. It was Blacksburg, Va., her Virginia Tech campus. And it had just been the site of the largest shooting spree in modern U.S. history.In two separate incidents, the first around 7:15 a.m. in a dormitory and the second at 9:45 a.m. in a classroom, Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student at the school, shot and killed 33 people and injured 26, some seriously. He then turned the firearm on himself, ending the carnage.Murray found out later, after arriving in Virginia after a stopover in Atlanta, how close she would have been to the bloodbath. West Ambler Johnston, the co-ed dorm where Cho killed two students in the early morning, is adjacent to Cochrane, the one Murray lived in. That classroom the gunman shot into was in a building only yards from Norris Hall, where Murray had her 9:05 a.m class.”I couldn't believe it, really,” said Murray, a Francis Lewis graduate, in a telephone interview the day it happened. “A lot of people who had class at 9:05 didn't even know about it. If I wasn't home, I had a 9:05 class.”The tragedy was essentially the last straw for Murray and her family. The 6-foot-1 forward wasn't happy in Blacksburg, anyway. She felt like she didn't fit in and wasn't getting the playing time she knew she deserved. Luckily, the NCAA waived transfer rules for athletes leaving Virginia Tech and Murray was able to get a fresh start at Syracuse University.”I love it,” she said. “Everybody is so nice. I'm happy [the NCAA] realized why I wanted to leave. I'm definitely happy to get this opporunity.”In her first season with the Orange, the sophomore averages 7 points and 4.3 rebounds in 17.3 minutes per game. She's shown the ability to be a force in the post, which Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman likes quite a bit. On Saturday, she helped hold Vaughn to only four points and five rebounds in the Orange's 64-49 loss in Piscataway, N.J. Murray had nine points on 4-of-4 shooting in 30 minutes.”She comes in and gives us a real physical presence,” Hillsman said. “When she's down there in the paint banging, it's awesome.”It helps that there are many familiar faces on the Orange roster. Freshmen Tasha Harris and Erica Morrow, sophomore Nicole Michael and senior Fantasia Goodwin all played for Exodus, the AAU team Murray played for one summer in high school. Michael, a Jamaica native, played for August Martin.”As soon as they got Nicole Michael, now you can use that kid to get other New York City players,” Francis Lewis coach Mike Eisenberg said.It's only helped ease the transition for Murray. Syracuse will be playing in the Big East tournament this weekend in Hartford, Conn., and the Orange were unexpectedly ranked this season in only Hillsman's second year. Despite a slump the past few weeks, they should easily make the NCAA tournament.”We're gonna stay together,” said Murray, who was the TimesLedger PSAL All-Queens girls' basketball Player of the Year in 2006. “We can't take anything for granted.”She learned that first-hand almost one year ago.Reach Associate Sports Editor Marc Raimondi by e-mail at mraimondi@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 130.
