Faieta to Represent USA at World Deaf Basketball Championships in Taiwan

Skyhawks All-American headed to Taoyuan, Taiwan, with Team USA tonight

Tori's Trip Photo Gallery

USA Deaf Basketball Website

2015 World Deaf Basketball Championships Website

EASTON, Mass. (June 30, 2015) – Recent Stonehill College graduate and women's basketball All-American Tori Faieta (Lynn, Massachusetts/Saint Mary's) is wrapping up training camp in Fremont, California, and preparing to board a plane tonight to represent the United States of America at the 2015 World Deaf Basketball Championships in Taiwan starting at the end of the week.

Faieta, a three-time All-Northeast-10 Conference selection and the Stonehill women's basketball program's first All-American in 15 years, has been selected to be a part of the USA Women's Deaf Basketball team which will compete at the World Deaf Basketball Championships July 4-12. Team USA will open the 11 nation tournament on Saturday, July 4, when it faces Ukraine at 10 a.m. (10 PM EDT on July 3). USA is in the five nation Group B at the tournament and will play each of the four other teams in its groups over the first four days of the event. Joining USA and Ukraine in Group B are Italy, Russia and Japan. The top four teams from each group will advance to the medal round which will begin with quarterfinal round action on Friday, July 10. The women's final is scheduled for Sunday, July 12, at 3 p.m. (3 AM EDT).

"Having the opportunity to play on this team, to represent my country and have this experience has been a blessing," said Faieta of her selection to the team. "Up until now I really didn't know anyone who had a hearing loss and played basketball and now I am surrounded by people similar to me."

Faieta is joined on the USA Deaf Women's Basketball team by 15 other hearing impaired athletes, many who attended Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The team is coached by Laura Edwards, who is also a physical education teacher at the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind.

"Each one of my teammates are inspirations," said Faieta. "They don't let any obstacles stand in their way and they go for what they want. So far it has been such an enjoyable experience and I can't wait for us to get to Taiwan and bring back that gold medal."

Faieta recently completed a standout career at Stonehill which saw her named to the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division II Coaches' All-America Team as well as a Division II Bulletin All-American following her senior season. The Daktronics All-East Region pick and unanimous All-NE-10 first team honoree this past season started all 29 games for Stonehill this winter and averaged a double-double with 15.4 points (8th NE-10) and 10.4 rebounds per game (2nd) to go with 1.9 assists and a Conference-high 2.1 blocked shots in 26.6 minutes per game. Faieta ranked 12th nationally in Division II for defensive rebounds per game (8.0), 23rd for double-doubles, 25th for blocked shots and 32nd for rebounds per game.

Faieta, named to the All-Tournament team at the NCAA Tournament's East Regional in March, finished her four year career at Stonehill ranked 13th in program history with 1,402 points, while her 215 career blocked shots rank second all-time and her 880 rebounds third in program history. Her 103 career games started ranks third all-time and her .497 field goal percentage fifth. Faieta's 302 rebounds this season rank second on the program's all-time single-season list (just ten shy of former All-American and Stonehill Hall of Famer Suzanne Patchett's '97 single-season record of 312 in 1996-97), while her 10.4 rebounds per game finished just 0.1 shy of Julie Stockwell's '00 single-season mark of 10.5. Faieta's career-high matching 62 blocks this season is tied for third on the program's all-time single-season list, just 11 shy of Kelsey Simonds' 10 record of 73 in 2007-08. Faieta was named to the NE-10 All-Rookie team as a freshman and has earned NE-10 Commissioner's Honor Roll status six semesters and Athletic Director's Honor Roll one semester for her performance in the classroom.

Stonehill finished its 2014-15 season with a 24-5 record overall, including an 18-2 mark in the Northeast-10 to win the Northeast Division Championship. The Skyhawks, ranked 13th in the final regular season USA TODAY Sports/WBCA Division II poll, earned the 23rd NCAA bid in program history, advancing to the East Regional Championship for the eighth time in program history.

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