In a freshman season that only saw two starts, sophomore guard/forward Camryn Fauria had a few impressive performances, including a 12-point performance in her college debut against Bloomsburg. Despite her limited minutes on the court last year, Fauria finished tied for third on the team in total blocks, with seven on the year. Fauria returns to the Bearcats for her sophomore season, where she looks to take on a much larger role on and off the court.

“Overall, [I can improve on] everything,” Fauria said. “Being a huge communicator and scoring-wise, I think I can up the stats in scoring and rebounding.”

Fauria’s hometown is Foxborough, Massachusetts, where she comes from a family of athletes. Her father, Christian Fauria, was a tight end for the New England Patriots and a two-time Super Bowl champion. Her brother is a football player at the University of Colorado, her little sister recently committed to play lacrosse at Old Dominion University and her cousin played professional football. Fauria credits her family’s extensive athletic background for her love of basketball.

“Athletics are in my blood,” Fauria said. “I felt that basketball was the sport that I was drawn to the most ever since I was a little kid.”

Before she arrived at Binghamton, Fauria attended Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Massachusetts. As a senior, she averaged 18 points, seven rebounds and shot 49 percent from the field. She also led her team to a 21-3 record and a Catholic Central League (CCL) Cup in her senior year.

Fauria says that the difference in competition from high school to college was stark. Although she played AAU basketball against higher-level competition than she did in high school, Fauria still found the adjustment to playing basketball at the Division 1 (D1) level to be somewhat challenging.

“[The college competition] was definitely different.” Fauria said. “The girls are stronger, faster, and I just needed to work on my strength and catch up to them and understand that I grow with the team and stuff like that.”

This year, Fauria is focused on improving her skills and her mindset. She has particularly emphasized on improving her scoring and rebounding from last season. Fauria, who averaged 2.8 points and 1.5 rebounds per game during her freshman campaign, is focused on leveraging her expanded role to contribute more to the team in those categories, as well as being a leader.

“I think [my role] will be a bigger scoring threat than last year and being a good leader on and off the court,” Fauria said. “[Especially during practice,] talking to my teammates why something didn’t work out or why something did work out.”

Even though Fauria is focused on individual success and what she contributes to the team, she also emphasizes the mental aspect of the game. She mentions her confidence and attitude as two important ways where she can improve this coming season.

“I definitely think I was lacking a lot of confidence last year,” Fauria said. “That’s something I’ve worked on this summer especially [during] summer session and preseason.”

Alongside fortifying her mental game on the court, Fauria mentioned improving her attitude toward the game off the court.

“I think it is easy to get wrapped up in [the mindset of] ‘how many points did I score this game,’” Fauria said. “I really want to focus on having a positive mindset and just having a consistent game through it all.”

When asked about her favorite players, Fauria named a few. She first mentioned Kobe Bryant, then she mentioned Kyrie Irving, Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan. Although she has a few favorite players, Fauria said that she does not model her game off of one specific player.

“I don’t [base my game off anybody],” Fauria said. “But there are some videos or games [of players] that I see where I say I need to add that in my bag [of skills].”