Chicago Sky selects UCLA guard Gabriela Jaquez in first round of 2026 WNBA Draft

The Chicago Sky have selected former UCLA guard Gabriela Jaquez in the first round of the 2026 WNBA Draft. Jaquez spent four years with the Bruins, most recently winning a national championship in the final game of her college career.

She was a major piece to the Bruins’ title efforts, averaging 13.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game while starting all 38 games she appeared in. She averaged 9.9 points and 5.0 rebounds across her career.

In all, she finishes her four-year career with 145 games played — 79 of which she started. However, she cracked the starting lineup in 74 of her final 76 games.

Going out on top is a rare feat in any sport. Even rarer in this day and age — Jaquez spent her entire career at UCLA leading up to the title win. In the age of NIL and the transfer portal, loyalty won out in the end.

“(I’m) super satisfied with this result. And the journey was even better,” Jaquez said after the title win.

“But I think coming in my freshman year, my dream was to be at UCLA. Just to have an offer from UCLA, it brought tears to my eyes when Coach Cori offered me. To now be playing there, Kiki coming in, we had a big freshman group. We were determined, the core group, to do something UCLA hadn’t done before in the NCAA era. That was important for us. We always believed. We always believed.

“I think Coach Cori started with that, just always believing in us. Again, I keep saying it, but I’m just super, super proud of this whole group, everyone in the program, for always believing. Job’s finished. Job is finished.”

Jaquez isn’t the only member of UCLA’s championship team who declared for the 2026 WNBA Draft. Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker all attended the draft as well.