Brie Pergola is a sophomore business management major from Torrington, Conn. She is also  the starting point guard on the women’s basketball team under first-year head coach Debbie Buff.

In her two years as a member of the Chargers women’s basketball team, Pergola has played in 54 games, started in 49 of them, scored 493 points, and averaged just over nine points a game for her career.

Pergola has already made a mark on the program, but the journey that led her to the university began in fifth grade when she first began basketball, thanks in part to her father and basketball coach, Dean, who pushed her to pursue the game. The game clicked for Pergola at the start of her high school career and she realized basketball was something she not only loved, but something she wanted to continue to do.

“Going into freshman year is when I started to enjoy [basketball],” said Pergola, “I started to realize that maybe I could go to the next level and that I should.”

A year later she began her pursuit of a collegiate career.

“I went to a lot of showcases where there were just basketball coaches lined up,” said Pergola, “AAU helped a lot. When you’re a sophomore, you can’t really talk to them, but junior year I got to actually talk to them.”

When it came time to make a decision, there were two contenders: Assumption College and the University of New Haven. Basketball wasn’t the only factor in deciding to become a Charger.

“I liked the size of the school, the size of it as well,” said Pergola, “I didn’t want somewhere too big, I wanted the classroom smaller, I wanted to be able to interact more and I thought the school was great.”

When she finally got on campus and set foot into Charger Gymnasium, she was proud. She said that it felt great and made her feel like she had accomplished something since she had been working towards this goal for so long.

Pergola’s ride with the Chargers continued Sunday when the team defeated No. 2 Stonehill in the first round of the Northeast-10 conference championships, 58-52.