Purdue Women's Basketball Adds International Guard to Incoming Recruiting Class

The Purdue women's basketball team picked up a huge commitment on Sunday, landing international guard Maya Zilbershlag. The 5-foot-11 prospect comes from Israel, also the home of current Boilermaker guard Hila Karsh.

Zilbershlag shined for Israel's U18 team during the 2025 EuroBasket, which was played in July. She led the event in scoring, averaging 18.4 points per game and shot 35.7% from the floor. The skilled guard also averaged 8.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists per contest.

Zilbershlag played extremely well in the final three games of the event. She finished out posting three-straight double-doubles. She had 27 points and 14 rebounds against Slovenia, finished with 25 points and 14 boards against Turkey and totaled 12 points and 12 rebounds against Portugal.

Coach Katie Gearlds and her staff have assembled a three-person recruiting class for 2026, all three are international prospects. In addition to Zilbershlag, Purdue has also landed pledges from Katarina Sediva from Slovakia and Keona Douwstra from the Netherlands.

Douwstra was actually a member of Purdue's 2025 recruiting class, alongside Avery Gordon and Karsh. However, she reclassified and will now join the Boilermakers for the 2026-27 campaign.

Purdue's 2026-27 roster will have four international players

With Douwstra, Sediva and Zilbershlag all committing to Purdue, the Boilermakers will have four international players on the 2026-27 roster, at least for the time being. The transfer portal could still change that in the coming weeks.

Those three will join Karsh, who just completed her freshman season at West Lafayette. The guard averaged 6.9 points and 2.4 assists per contest while shooting 35.7% from the floor.

Sediva comes to Purdue as a 6-foot-1 guard/forward. She participated in the Women's U20 EuroBasket with Slovakia in 2025, averaging 10.8 points and 8.2 boards per game. She also played in the U18 EuroBasket and put up even better numbers, scoring 12.4 points, collecting 11.3 boards and dishing out 3.4 assists per contest.

Another participant in the FIBA Women's U20 EuroBasket, Douwstra appeared in seven games for the Netherlands in the event. She posted 10.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. She was supposed to join Purdue's roster during the summer of 2025, but reclassified.

Purdue's incoming class provides Gearlds with a lot of international experience on the roster. The Boilers could also return a bulk of their roster from the 2025-26 campaign, with Madison Layden-Zay as the only senior on the team.

The transfer portal could still shake things in West Lafayette, but right now, Purdue has a lot of depth and experience on the roster.

Purdue ended the season with a 13-17 record. The Boilermakers were the No. 14 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, but lost to Oregon 82-64 in their first-round contest.

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