Meredyth Frye calls it her "going to war" nail polish.

Before each Georgia Southern women’s basketball game, Frye paints her nails dark black. It’s a ritual the Lady Eagles’ best player has performed since last season.

"I started it last year," she said. "It was the Samford game last year, right before Christmas break, and I just decided to put black nail polish on. We call it going-to-war (nail polish). I hadn’t really been doing it this year and then I started back doing it before that Jacksonville game right before Christmas break. I started playing a little bit better."

Frye leads GSU in scoring (10.5 points per game), rebounds (5.0) free-throw attempts (67), free throws made (50), minutes played (29.1) and turnovers (2.8).

The 5-foot-10 junior guard from Fredericksburg, Va., played in all 31 games as a freshman but did not start. She averaged 4.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. As a sophomore last season, she started in all 30 games and averaged 11.6 points and 5.2 rebounds.

Frye has played in 75 consecutive games and has started in 45 straight games. To put that into perspective, the closest player to playing in as many consecutive games as Frye is senior guard Samantha Williams, who has played in 45 straight games and started in five. The closest player to starting in as many consecutive games as Frye is sophomore guard MiMi DuBose, who has started in 14 of the 17 games in which she has played.

"It is a ton of experience, and with that comes a lot of responsibility though," GSU head coach Rusty Cram said of Frye, who was selected to the preseason All-Southern Conference team. "And that’s the hard part. We tried to caution Meredyth in the offseason, during the summer, the fall, that she’s a preseason all-conference (selection) and everybody is going to attack her. Their whole scouting reports are going to start with Meredyth Frye first and build from there.

"And we tried to make her understand that so she couldn’t go through the same motions that she has her first two years because she was unheard of. Nobody really knew who she was. She slipped in there because of the other players that we had, the go-to players. But now she’s our go-to player, that stable factor for us, and she has got to work harder every day because people are doubling her."

GSU (5-10, 1-5) will play at 7 tonight against Elon in Burlington, N.C., in the first game of a three-game SoCon road trip. The Lady Eagles will play at 2 p.m. Sunday against UNC Greensboro in Greensboro, N.C. GSU will play at 7 p.m. Wednesday against College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C.

In GSU’s 53-47 loss to Davidson on Saturday, there were moments when Frye was triple-teamed by defenders.

"They’re keying her, so she’s got to elevate her game like the best do," Cram said. "The greatest players learn not to get complacent, and learn to elevate and bring their game up. That’s Meredyth’s next step."

Frye said she has struggled during the first half of this season and that it has been frustrating. She suffered a broken nose during the Nov. 11 season opener against Arizona and had to wear a protective mask for a month.

"I’ve kind of had a struggle this first half of the season with the mask and everything. That kind of threw me off," she said. "People are coming after me, and I have to learn how to get used to it and learn how to take the ball up stronger and be more physical, and get more rebounds when we need it, and get more assists because people are going to come after me so I need to get the ball to people who can hit the open shot."

When asked if basketball was still fun, given that opponents’ game plans are designed to stop Frye, she said, "Of course it’s fun, but sometimes it’s not fun being hit and being that everyone is always looking for me. Every cut I make, I’m always hit. That’s not fun. I don’t think that’s fun for anybody. But those are the things you’ve got to push through." Frye graduated with honors from Riverbend High School in 2009, and was a member of the National Art Honor Society. She is majoring in graphic design at GSU.

"I’m from Virginia so, obviously, I had never heard of GSU before," she said. "And then I just got a call from (GSU assistant coach) Regina (Days-Bryan) one day. I was a senior. I still hadn’t committed anywhere. I was late signing here. She just said, ‘We have an open spot. I want you to come down.’ By then, my options were a lot more open and I was just open to anything. I came down here and I fell in love with the campus. I liked it down here and on the way home, I just knew that this was the place I was supposed to go."

During high school, Frye earned 11 varsity letters in soccer (four), basketball (four) and volleyball (three). In basketball, she twice was selected most valuable player at Riverbend in 2008 and 2009. She twice was named to the all-district first team and was chosen all-region her senior year, averaging 22 points and 11 rebounds per game.

"She understands the game," Cram said. "No matter what sports she’s played, she’s one of those that’s not going to be a superstar at any of them but very good at all of them because she understands concepts.

"We get frustrated with her at times because we try to use her in certain areas and it doesn’t look like she’s producing, but when the game’s over she’s got 12, 13, 14 points and six or seven rebounds, and playing pretty decent defense. So it’s hard to get frustrated with her.

"But our expectations are so much higher for her because she’s our marquee player. She’s the one that’s got to make us go if we’re going to be successful."