Sophia Vital, aka “Big Soph,” the seemingly ironic nickname given to the 5-foot-5-inch second-year guard, is in the midst of her breakout season for the University of Rhode Island women’s basketball team as the Atlantic 10 Tournament is quickly approaching.
“I think I’m playing with a lot more confidence in myself and my teammates,” Vital said. “Knowing that they have confidence in me to just do what I know I can do is big for me.”
Despite her small stature, Vital was certainly not overlooked during her recruiting process, as she received nine offers from schools other than URI. A few notable ones include Vanderbilt University, A-10 rival University of Massachusetts, Southern Methodist University, St. John’s University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Vital had always felt connected to the Rams, as they had been recruiting her since she was in eighth grade.
“It was a full circle moment because I had a bunch of other schools [recruiting me],” Vital said. “But I just knew I wanted to play under [Head] Coach [Tammi] Reiss, and I just knew that this was the place for me.”
A noticeable trend in the last few seasons is that Reiss always seems to have a couple of undersized guards on the roster. Last year, the Rams rostered 5-foot-8-inch guards Dee Dee Davis ’23 and Teisha Hyman ’23, and from 2020-23 rostered 5-foot-7-inch guard Dolly Cairns. Reiss mentioned that it wasn’t a coincidence that there has been a trend of undersized guards on her rosters, but she tries to focus on the player regardless of their height.
“A lot of people don’t like recruiting small guards which is why they don’t go to [Power 5] conferences,” Reiss said. “It’s not that I recruit small. I recruit a player, and I fell in love with ‘Big Soph’ from the first time I saw her; as a floor general, her leadership, how she made plays, how she played and her flavor.”
When Vital stepped onto the Ryan Center court both for practice and her first game against Sacred Heart University, she immediately noticed the increased intensity at the college level.
“I was like, ‘this is so different than high school,’” Vital said. “The physicality and the speed, I was just like ‘whoa.’ It was just crazy to me, but I was really excited to be out there and be able to play college basketball.”
Last season, Vital averaged 9.7 minutes per game, 1.6 points per game and 1.5 assists per game. Her career high to that point was nine points in 23 minutes in a 67-56 win against Ocean State rival Brown University.
This season, she has more than doubled her minutes per game to 23 and has started each of the last 15 games for the Rams after not starting a game last season. This increase in minutes has caused her points per game to almost quadruple to 6.2 and her assists per game to nearly triple to a team-leading 4.1. She has scored 10+ points in a game six times this season after not having a double-digit point game in her career before this stretch. This included a new career-high of 20 points, while making a career-high four threes against Duquesne University on Feb. 5.
“[The coaches] give me different types of information, like [Associate Head] Coach [Adeniyi Amadou]; he runs our offense, so he helps me with the different reads and stuff,” Vital said. “[Assistant] Coach Jen [Fay] works out with me like twice a day. She helps me with the way I was shooting the ball [against Duquesne]. [Associate Head] Coach [Ali] Jaques gives me confidence every day to play the way I know how to play.”
Vital and the rest of the Rams return home to the Ryan Center to take on La Salle University on Saturday at noon. The game will be streamed on ESPN+, with radio broadcasts available on RIU2.org and The Varsity Network.
