Ready for the Next Chapter

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Serena Sundell hopes to take the WNBA by storm. Monday night, the former Kansas State honorable mention All-American guard was selected by the Seattle Storm with the 26^th overall pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft, allowing one of the finest players ever to wear the purple and white a path toward reaching her dream.

Sundell, one of 16 potential draftees invited to attend the WNBA Draft in person, toured New York City and took in the sights earlier in the day. Then she patiently sat with her family and Kansas State head coach Jeff Mittie and waited to be called onto the stage at The Shed in Manhattan, New York — an orange-carpeted two-floor cultural center in the Bloomberg Building in Hudson Yards.

Then it happened. Her name was called at 8:33 p.m. Pick 26. To the Seattle Storm. She hugged her parents. She hugged Mittie. And then she ambled to the stage, a big smile, as bright lights filled the room.

"I'm just excited and full of gratitude," Sundell told ESPN reporter Holly Rowe. "I'm excited to be on this big stage and for the opportunity that's about to come."

Sundell joins WNBA Champion and nine-time All-Star Nneka Ogwumike, four-time All-WNBA First Team selection and six-time All-Star Skylar Diggins-Smith, WNBA Champion and All-Star Ezi Magbegor, and 2024 European Player of the Year and silver medalist Gabby Williams as the Storm look to compete for their fifth WNBA championship. The team begins its preseason against the Connecticut Sun on May 4. The Storm used their No. 2 overall pick to draft 19-year-old 6-foot-6 center Dominique Malonga.

ESPN women's basketball analyst and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall-of-Famer Rebecca Lobo indicated that 6-foot-2 Sundell was an ideal fit for a Storm squad that needed a combo-guard.

"With her size, she's very good at getting into the post and posting up smaller guards," Lobo said. "Where she's truly remarkable is her ability to facilitate when she gets the ball on the block. This is a young woman who has a versatile skill set and certainly brings great size at that point guard position."

As an added twist, Sundell moves to the same city as older brother Jalen Sundell, an offensive tackle for the Seattle Seahawks. Jalen starred at North Dakota State and was signed by the Seahawks as an undrafted free agent in 2024.

"My parents are thrilled," Serena said. "I'm thrilled. It'll be perfect, yes."

Jalen made the cut of the Seahawks initial 53-man roster out of training camp and played in 12 games with the Seahawks last season.

"That's just an incredible story," Serena said. "All you need is one opportunity and go make the most of it."

Serena, the ninth player in K-State history to be selected in the WNBA Draft, has spent her life making the most of her opportunity. And she comes off a statement-making senior season behind a nation-leading 262 assists and a career-high 7.3 assists per game to go along with 14.1 points per game. She was the only player in the nation this season with 500 points, 250 assists and to shoot 50% from the floor. She had eight double-doubles this past season as well as a 26-point, 13-assist, 10-rebound triple-double.

Mittie said that he spoke with 75% of the WNBA teams in the last year, including six or seven teams consistently over the last two or three weeks.

"I really told them all the things they already knew from a basketball perspective," he said. "They could see her versatility, her ability to post up not only smaller guards but like-size players. I told them about her vision. I told them about her intangibles, how she's a great teammate, a great locker room player who's a terrific player on the floor, and how she's a player that understands team dynamics and all that goes into winning.

"In the big moments of games, she delivers."

Such was the case when she had 27 points, six rebounds, four assists and one block in a 59-50 win over No. 9 TCU earlier this season. Sundell took over the game in the final two quarters.

"She lived at the rim," TCU head coach Mark Campbell said. "She's a unique basketball player. They used her as a one-through-four. They use her as a point guard. They use her as a center. She absolutely destroyed us in the post. She's a 6-2 versatile playmaker. She had 23 points in the second half.

"We didn't have an answer."

Mittie best remembers how Sundell had 19 points and 14 assists in an 80-79 win over No. 4 seed Kentucky in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

"My favorite Serena memory has to be the Kentucky game, just to see her deliver, and to give her a big hug after the game," Mittie said. "For her to deliver in that moment at Kentucky and make huge plays, and to give her a hug afterward, that was probably my favorite moment."

As the cliché goes, Sundell went from the Little Apple to the Big Apple for the WNBA Draft, but to say as much is to slight the true beginning of Sundell's path from pupil to professional — a quest that began not in Manhattan, Kansas, but in Maryville, Missouri, a city with a population of 12,000. It's where Serena dribbled basketballs inside her parents' garage at age 2, passed basketballs back-and-forth to her mother at the Maryville Community Center at age 3, and where she played club basketball for her father in the third grade. Eventually, she played on the AAU team Run GMC and won the Prague 17-and-under division of the 2018 Nike Tournament of Champions in Chicago.

She was named 2021 Miss Show-Me Basketball, earned back-to-back Class 4 Player of the Year honors, and was rated as the No. 3 player in the state of Missouri.

"Coach Mittie drove to Maryville, I had a good game, and it just kind of snowballed from there," Sundell said.

Mittie remembers the game well.

"I saw her play AAU, but the final evaluation for me was in Maryville," he said. "She didn't get off to a great start, but she hung in there, had an unbelievable fourth quarter, and made all the winning plays."

Sundell committed to K-State on April 2, 2020, prior to her senior year at Maryville and after visiting Manhattan prior to the COVID pandemic. She chose K-State over scholarship offers from Northwest Missouri State, Providence, North Dakota State, St. Louis University, Indiana State, Colorado State, Butler, UMKC, South Dakota State and Drake.

"Kansas State is getting a great player and an even better person," Maryville head coach Quentin Albrecht told the Maryville Forum. "They are very fortunate."

Sundell did her homework. She talked to former K-State players. She talked to current players. She talked to upcoming players. Most of all, she had deep conversations with Mittie. He outlined what he expected from her. He liked her versatility. He wanted her to be a threat to shoot and spread the floor.

"This program has made the NCAA Tournament six times out of the last 10 years," Sundell told the Forum. "Since 2000, the program has had 11 alums play in the WNBA."

And now, after a standout four-year career at K-State, Sundell can add herself to the list.

"Her four-year run here has been really good," Mittie said. "She and her team got K-State to a place it hadn't been to in 23 years. She did it with such consistency and represented K-State the right way in every area."

Now Sundell takes her game to Seattle.

And she hopes to take the WNBA by storm.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Serena Sundell

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