The WNBA draft is fully underway and to nobody’s surprise the No. 1 overall pick was South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston by the Indiana Fever. As the draft continued, one of the more surprising picks of the day was the No. 4 overall selection of Iowa State’s Stephanie Soares by the Washington Mystics. It wouldn’t be draft day though without some wheeling and dealing. Soares time with the Mystics was short-lived as she was almost immediately traded to the Dallas Wings. Soares selection was surprising in that WNBA teams still felt highly about her potential despite a limited sample size.
After Washington traded the No. 4 pick, Stephanie Soares and No. 5 pick Lou Lopez Senechal are both headed to the Dallas Wings pic.twitter.com/s09plyPqJ5
— espnW (@espnW) April 10, 2023
Stephanie Soares only saw playing time in 13 games for Iowa State due to a torn ACL she suffered back in January. The injury will force her to miss the upcoming WNBA season but obviously both the Mystics and Wings were intrigued enough by her talent to acquire her on WNBA draft day. In those 13 games, Soares averaged 14.4 points per game, 9.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.1 steals and 3.0 blocked shots with shooting splits of 54.4 percent shooting from the field, 30.6 percent shooting from the three-point line and 66.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
Soares originally came from The Master’s University in California in the NAIA where she had an illustrious career that put her on Division 1 school radars. She applied for a waiver for another season of Division 1 basketball at Iowa State following her ACL injury but it was denied by the NCAA. Soares is a talented and versatile center who can score in the paint as well as step out and space the floor with her three-point shooting.
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