St. Mary’s star Faieta verbally commits to Stonehill

St. Mary’s girls basketball center Tori Faieta, an incoming senior, has committed to play at Stonehill College on a full basketball scholarship.”The early scholarship shows they believe in me,” said Faieta, who accepted verbally on Wednesday. “It felt nice to say yes.”Stonehill is a Division 2 basketball school in Easton, and Faieta has a high regard for its program. She called the Northeast-10 league, which Stonehill plays in, the top Division 2 league in the country.Faieta has compiled an impressive resume heading into her senior season for the Spartans. She has played five seasons (including as an eighth-grader) and is the school’s all-time leading scorer in girls basketball, with 1,105 points, and all-time leading rebounder, with 1,117. She enjoyed the top scoring season for any girls player in school history last year, when she tallied 370 points. She is a three-time Catholic Central League all-star and two-time Spartan Classic MVP.She also likes basketball for the friendships it has brought her.”Socially, it’s good for me,” she said. “I’ve made a lot of new friends who I probably would never have met (otherwise). I fit in. It gives me the confidence to play.”In fact, one factor that made Stonehill more appealing to Faieta occurred recently, when her friend, Bishop Fenwick student Amy Pelletier – whom she knows through AAU and from playing against each other – made a verbal commitment to the school.Thanks in part to her on-court achievements, Faieta is the first Spartan girls basketball player to receive a full basketball scholarship and the third St. Mary’s female athlete in four years to receive a full athletic scholarship, joining Amanda Webster (soccer) and Abby Gauthier (hockey), both of whom attend Providence.Faieta has succeeded on the court while dealing with a hearing disability, and her high school coach, Jeff Newhall, praised her resilience.”The percentage of full scholarships to college athletically is very slim,” Newhall said. “When you look into what she’s had to overcome, it is a remarkable story.”One factor that made Stonehill appealing to Faieta was a meeting with the college dean about her hearing disability, after which she felt good about the college’s ability to help her.”That was a big reason,” she said.She also praised the school’s academic reputation and its close distance from her home (45 minutes), saying, “I’m a family girl.”Her twin sister, Rachel, is on the varsity with her, and their younger sister, Taylor, will enter her freshman year at St. Mary’s this fall. Their parents and Taylor Faieta are devoted attendees of Spartan varsity games, Newhall said.