From her first time lacing up her shoes in the Hawk Center to the last buzzer sounding while wearing the orange and blue, Brianna Fitzgerald constructed one of the most illustrious careers in SUNY New Paltz history. 

Not only is her name cemented as one of the best in women's basketball program history, but she leaves a legacy as one of the best athletes to walk through SUNY New Paltz. 

After her freshman year was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the guard/forward from Dix Hills, NY was an impact player on the floor from her first season in 2021-2022. She started 26 of 27 games and led the team in scoring with 375 points. As a sophomore, she was a key component in the Hawks' 2022 SUNYAC Championship win, scoring 17 points and earning seven boards in the 66-63 win. Her performance in her first year, which ended in the first round against Babson, earned her SUNYAC Rookie of the Year, along with D3hoops.com All-Region III Rookie of the Year. 

Her trajectory continued trending upward as she got even better in her second year in the league. With the entire roster intact, Fitzgerald elevated SUNY New Paltz as one of the best in the country as she paced her team in every statistical category. Fitzgerald's impact was again felt all over the court as she helped lead the Hawks to another conference championship game. Despite the team falling short 57-52 against Cortland in the finals, their stellar regular season propelled them to an NCAA appearance, winning the opening round before the squad fell to hosting and No. 13 Babson College, denying them a trip to the Sweet 16. 

Looking to win the chip her senior year, Fitzgerald continued to dominate, leading in minutes played and points for the third year in a row. She also made history in conference play, being the second player in program history to record a triple-double with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against SUNY Brockport. 

And in the end of the 2023-2024 campaign, the team fought its way to another conference title with Fitzgerald leading the team with 16 points along with tying a game high 10 rebounds. To cap off her senior season, Fitzgerald and SUNY New Paltz hosted the first round of the NCAA tournament. Unfortunately, the hosting Hawks fell in the second round to Baldwin Wallace 65-42. 

However, with an extra year of eligibility due to her first year being cut short due to the pandemic, Fitzgerald decided to return for a fifth year alongside teammates Julia Sabatino, Madison Mullman and Abby Korzekwinski. All the graduates and the rest of the Hawks were vying for back-to-back SUNYAC Championships, and Fitzgerald was looking to round out her career with a third championship win.  

But the unexpected happened that fall. 

In an individual session on the first day of practice of the 2024-2025 season, Fitzgerald went up for a layup and, after coming down, felt her knee buckle. Unsure of what had happened, she waited a few weeks before getting an MRI, further extending the wait to see what the injury was. 

On Halloween, after receiving her second career preseason All-American nod, Fitzgerald received the news. She had fully torn her ACL as well as her meniscus, sidelining her for the rest of the season. 

"That was a very difficult, difficult day," said Fitzgerald. "I had to tell the team, I had to tell coach. And I remember sitting upstairs with coach, and he said you have around 24 hours to feel all the things, and then you have to turn around because we still have a season to play." 

Fitzgerald went into coach mode, sitting alongside the team at every game she could and was the loudest voice in the gym. 

"She's just phenomenal, the way she's handled this from the very beginning," said head coach Jamie Seward last season. "By the time we got to practice that evening, she's what you saw today. She's bouncing around. She beat one of our players in a sprint the other day, down and back. She's just an amazing, amazing person. She's been great in taking a lot of these kids under her wing from before we've even got to the season. She's a special one." 
Although missing Fitzgerald in the lineup, the 2024-2025 team made it to the SUNYAC finals, where they fell to the Cortland Red Dragons, 68-49. However, throughout the season, Fitzgerald was in a battle of her own. 

In January, Fitzgerald underwent a full ACL and meniscus reconstruction along with a Lateral Extra-articular Tenodesis (LET) procedure to strengthen the graft. The surgery placed Fitzgerald on crutches for six weeks, slowing her start to recovery. 

"Once those six weeks were over, I was able to start walking a little bit better and I started doing physical therapy," Fitzgerald said. "I went to physical therapy around here and when I went home, I really kicked it up, I had PT almost every day. It was really difficult because you can't use weights or bend so it's a very long and tedious process to grow your muscle back." 

Since her injury occurred so early in the year, Fitzgerald had the ability to return and play again with a medical hardship waiver. At first, Fitzgerald didn't think she was going to come back and compete, but as time went on, she was getting stronger. 

She decided to return for the 2025-2026 season — her final year with the Hawks. 

The average recovery time for an ACL reconstruction is nine to 12 months, and for the average athlete, most return to sport; however, only 55 to 79 percent of patients return to their "pre-injury level" of competition. So, with only months until the start of the 2025-2026 season, Fitzgerald worked tirelessly to be back for the start of the year, kicking physical therapy into a completely different gear. 

"The biggest challenge for me was your body not being able to do the things it was able to do so easily," Fitzgerald said. "When you can't physically do something and you are putting all of your might and strength into it, it's such a tough mental challenge." 

The first game was looming, set for only 10 months and five days after Fitzgerald's January 2, 2025 surgery date. Fitzgerald was not only against the clock to come back from injury but was working back to an underclassmen-heavy team, with only senior Karly Wittenbauer and junior Hannah Vanderzee rounding out the upperclassmen lineup. The team itself was also small, with only 10 active players on the roster. Yet, none of those factors affected Fitzgerald's drive to be back on the floor.

"Talking to coach about coming back, I said to him I want to leave a legacy here, I want to leave this program better than when I came here," said Fitzgerald at the start of the year. "It feels really good after all the rehab and everything it took to get back, it paid off, I could finally get back out here and keep doing what I love to do." 

But despite the shortened timeline, the challenges, and the obstacles to what seemed like a nearly impossible feat — Fitzgerald suited up and started on the floor on November 7, 2025. 

In the Hawks' season opener against the Mount Saint Mary Knights, Fitzgerald scored 14 points in 6-for-7 shooting from the field with seven rebounds and two assists — all in just 20 minutes played. She was the third leading scorer in the 67-44 win.

But that was only the beginning.  

Against the Vassar Brewers Nov. 12, Fitzgerald registered a game-high 17 points with 15 rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block. In the 70-55 win, Fitzgerald recorded her first, and certainly not last, double-double of the year. However, her dominance on the court was truly emphasized in the Hawks' following game. 
SUNY New Paltz hosted the Ithaca Bombers, a team the Hawks had not beaten since 2017. The Bombers showed out for the first half and both teams entered the locker room with Ithaca up 35-32.

And when the Hawks needed her most, Fitzgerald delivered.

Scoring 23 of her game-high 35 points in the second half, Fitzgerald was the catalyst in the eventual 72-65 victory, while also notching eight rebounds, three steals, a block and an assist in the win. Her 35 points also tied her career high, which last came during the 2023-2024 season, her last year of competition. 

"Coming back, I was really nervous that I lost some speed, some athleticism due to the knee injury," said Fitzgerald after the game. "But I just have the most supportive team and coach, who has always stuck by me and believed in me to just go out there and make some plays. What a great day, what a great win."

Brianna Fitzgerald had returned. 

In the following five contests, Fitzgerald averaged more than 17 points a game, including a double-double against Franklin and Marshall with 22 points and 12 rebounds to close non-conference play. But the more important challenge had yet to come — SUNYAC conference play. 

And, like no time had passed, she continued her dominance over conference competition. 

Fitzgerald galvanize the Hawks through their last run in the SUNYAC. She finished as the league's second-leading scorer (18.1), third in rebounding (8.9), third in field goal percentage (45.6%), fifth in assists (3.79), second in steals (3.31) and fifth in blocks (1.28), all while leading SUNY New Paltz to a No. 1 seed in the SUNYAC Tournament after finishing atop the league standings at 17-1.

But her real statement in the SUNYAC came against the Potsdam Bears.
In its first SUNYAC contest back in the Hawk Center after break, SUNY New Paltz was set to face the Potsdam Bears. From the beginning, it was all the Hawks, but Fitzgerald was shining all over the court. 

And in only 27 minutes, history was made, as Fitzgerald became one of less than 20 athletes from the Division I to the Division III level to record a Quadruple Double. 15 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and 11 steals earned her the accolade, as she further etched her name into New Paltz and NCAA history. 

With 10 conference games left, there was still a long way to go for Fitzgerald and the Hawks, especially with a rematch against then No. 20 nationally ranked Cortland coming up. 

After two assertive wins against the Plattsburgh Cardinals and Morrisville Mustangs, SUNY New Paltz welcomed Cortland to the Hawk Center to battle for top seeding and playoff hosting abilities. 

And leading all scorers once again to lift the Hawks to victory, was Fitzgerald. The graduate scored 17 points with 10 rebounds for a double-double performance along with four assists, two blocks and a steal in the full 40 minutes of competition. Along with two 10-point performance from Vanderzee and Wittenbauer, the Hawks took a 57-55 victory — a win that eventually secured them the No. 1 seed heading into the SUNYAC Tournament. 



Following a less-than-satisfactory 39-38 win over Plattsburgh in the semifinal round, the Hawks had one sleep until the SUNYAC finals where, fittingly, they were set for a rematch against the Cortland Red Dragons. 

And that game had a more than satisfactory ending. 

In a close back-and-forth battle, Fitzgerald was the standout both offensively and defensively for her team. She once again led in every statistical category for the hosts with 21 points, six rebounds, four assists, four steals and three blocks. Alongside Vanderzee and Wittenbauer, who netted 14 and nine points, respectively, and combined for 10 rebounds — the Hawks bested the Cortland Red Dragons 56-52 in the Hawk Center, earning the team and Fitzgerald their third championship in five years. 
"It's very special," said Fitzgerald in the post-game press conference. "With all the doubts of coming back from injury and coming back with a really young group, I couldn't be more thankful for this group of girls I was able to play with." 

Fitzgerald was awarded tournament MVP, her third MVP award in three championships won. But the road didn't end there, as the victory punched SUNY New Paltz's ticket to the NCAA Tournament, where it headed to Cleveland, Ohio for the first round of the tournament. 

In her third and final NCAA appearance, Fitzgerald put up legendary numbers. In the team's first round 67-51 win against Immaculata, Fitzgerald and Wittenbauer led all scorers with 24 points apiece. Fitzgerald also brought in a career high 17 rebounds with six assists and three steals. 

"Everybody across the board played really well," said Fitzgerald in the post-game presser. "We had a lot of people who this is their first time in an NCAA tournament, so it was really great to see them play with confidence, shoot with confidence and have some fun out there." 

However, the storybook season came to a close in round two of the tournament against the No. 11 nationally ranked and hosting John Carroll Blue Streaks. Despite the 74-54 final score, Fitzgerald proved why she was one of the best in the country, as she led all scorers with 28 points, while also putting up nine rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block in 34 minutes played. 

Fitzgerald concluded her comeback season with numbers that rival or even surpass those of her four previous seasons. In her last year, she did not miss a start in 29 games played and led the team in minutes with 930. She paced the Hawks in nearly every statistical category and scored 525 total points, adding to her program record in career points, now sitting at 1,905. 

The Dix Hills, NY native also added some serious hardware to her trophy case in her final year, earning her fourth All-SUNYAC First-team nod, her third SUNYAC Player of the Year and first SUNYAC Defensive Player of the Year, fourth D3Hoops.com All-Region III First-Team selection, second D3Hoops.com All-Region III Outstanding Player of the Year award and second Jostens Trophy Finalist selection. 

After concluding her career this past winter, Fitzgerald's resume rivals few others. 

She became the program's first ever three-time All-American — with no other player receiving two — and the very first WBCA All-American First Team recipient. She leaves holding single season records for points and steals, and surpassed the all-time records for points and steals, while sitting second in rebounds (853), second in blocks (69) and third in assists (371). She has more triple doubles than anyone in program history and the first quadruple double. 

Between hard work, sacrifice, resilience and the love for the game, Fitzgerald leaves the SUNY New Paltz women's basketball program with an inspiring career for players to look up to for generations. 

Not only does she leave an outstanding legacy, but a legacy as the best player to lace up her shoes as a Hawk. 

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