Bria Hartley is in her junior year as a Guard for the UConn Huskies. Growing up in a house with four older brothers that played sports, and a dad who encouraged her to be involved with sports, Bria played all sports.

As an experienced player on the team she will be more vocal this year. "I'll just go out there and make sure I'm working hard every day and that I talk out there every day to help my teammates." While at UConn Bria has learned a few things to add to her game. "I've become a better, more consistent three point shooter. I can go to that instead of just a pull up or just making a play for my teammates." Some differences she found between high school and college basketball is that college is a lot faster, the girls are bigger, and it's a much larger talent pool.

Bria's most memorable experience so far at UConn was making it to the Final Four last year. "We came up short of a National Championship but a lot of teams don't even get the opportunity to play in a Final Four game." Her best memory prior to UConn was as an eighth grader playing varsity for North Babylon High School in New York; Bria had the opportunity to play against former UConn player Tina Charles when Tina was a senior in high school. "I thought, wow, she's so tall and I'm going to pull up so she can't block my shot, and she still blocked it, but it was a great experience." 

When making her decision to come to UConn, Bria had narrowed her choices to UConn, University of North Carolina, and Kentucky University. "Looking at UConn's history and knowing Coach Auriemma's a great coach, I decided on UConn. I think he can get a lot out of me to help me improve over my four years here." 

When asked what makes Coach Auriemma happy Bria said, "Coach just wants us to play hard and smart all the time." 

Bria's expectations of UConn have been met since she wasn't expecting much. "I wasn't really expecting much but I can say that I definitely enjoy the experience and being around all of my teammates, playing in games and being a part of college basketball."

Final Four bound: "It's definitely going to take a lot of hard work. We have to make sure we are all on the same page, need to work together, and play hard and smart all the time."