Rookies from UCLA headline WNBA season tip-off
The WNBA’s 30th season will open Friday with three games, including two contests featuring five of the six record-setting draft picks from this past season’s national champion UCLA women’s basketball team. Both games will air on ION.
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Washington Mystics at Toronto Tempo
Center Lauren Betts and forward Angela Dugalić will make their WNBA debuts for the Washington Mystics, who will face old friend and guard Kiki Rice when the Toronto Tempo host the first game in franchise history. Tip-off at Coca-Cola Coliseum is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. PDT.
Betts was the fourth overall pick and first UCLA player taken off the board in last month’s draft, with Dugalić selected just five picks later. In two preseason games, Betts averaged a team-leading 15.0 points and 4.5 rebounds for the league’s youngest roster that features nine rookies. Dugalić averaged 4.5 points, a team-high 5.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals over 20.0 minutes per game, including one start.
Ahead of the draft, the Mystics also signed ex-UCLA standout and five-year veteran forward Michaela Onyenwere as a free agent this offseason. Onyenwere, who served as an assistant coach during the Bruins’ run to the national title, sat out the preseason and will miss the season opener with a left leg injury.
Rice was the first-ever draft selection for the Tempo, an expansion franchise, when she was taken with the sixth overall pick. In the preseason, she averaged 7.5 points and 2.0 assists in 20.0 minutes per game and started one of the two games.
While the Tempo are looking to make their mark on the league, the Mystics have missed the playoffs the last two years including a 16-28 finish in 2025.
Connecticut Sun at New York Liberty
Guards Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker will make their debuts on the road when the Connecticut Sun meet the New York Liberty at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. PDT.
The Sun missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years after finishing 11-33 last season.
Kneepkens was the 15th and final first-round draft pick this spring, setting a first-round record for the most selections from one school in a draft. Three selections later, in the second round, Leger-Walker was taken to give UCLA the record for the most picks from one school in a single draft class. Both players came off the bench in the preseason.
The Sun lost 79-67 to the Liberty in the preseason five days ago. Kneepkens scored five points and Leger-Walker struggled with three turnovers without an assist while missing her only shot attempt.
In the preseason, Kneepkens averaged 4.0 points and Leger-Walker had a much stronger showing against the Tempo to average 4.0 points and 2.0 assists.
The Sun roster also includes six-year veteran guard/forward Kennedy Burke, who spent all four years of her college career at UCLA before graduating in 2019. On the other side will be Liberty guard Rebekah Gardner, who is entering her fourth season since leaving Westwood in 2011.
It will mark the start to the Sun’s 24th and final season in Connecticut, where it has made four WNBA Finals appearances — all losses. The franchise spent its first four years as the Orlando Miracle before being relocated and rebranded in 2003.
Next season, the team will be relocated once again and rebranded as the revived Houston Comets — one of the league’s original franchises when it opened in 1997 and the winners of the first four WNBA championships.
Gabriela Jaquez makes debut Saturday
Guard Gabriela Jaquez and the Chicago Sky will open the season on the road Saturday against the Portland Fire, the league’s other expansion franchise. The game will air from the Moda Center at 6 p.m. PDT on NBA TV.
Jaquez, the No. 5 overall pick in the draft, came off the bench in the Sky’s two preseason games. She averaged 8.0 points and 3.5 rebounds.
The Sky is looking to rebound after tying for the league’s worst record, 10-34, and missing the playoffs for a second consecutive year. The franchise traded away All-Star forward Angel Reese, the franchise’s top draft selection in 2024, to the Atlanta Dream for two future first-rounders and a future second-round pick this offseason.
When they return to Los Angeles
For those anticipating the six rookies’ first professional games back in Southern California, here’s when the Los Angeles Sparks host their respective teams at Crypto.com Arena (all times PDT):
- Friday, May 15 – Toronto Tempo, 7 p.m. (TV: ION)
- Sunday, May 17 – Toronto Tempo, 4 p.m. (TV: Spectrum SportsNet)
- Friday, July 10 – Chicago Sky, 7 p.m. (TV: ION)
- Saturday, Aug. 22 – Connecticut Sun, 6 p.m. (TV: Spectrum SportsNet, Amazon Prime)
- Friday, Aug. 28 – Washington Mystics, 7 p.m. (TV: ION)
Bruins in the WNBA
In all, 11 ex-UCLA players are on opening rosters in the league. The others include Monique Billings (Indiana Fever) and Jordin Canada (Atlanta Dream).
In addition, Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase is entering her second season at the helm.