Former UConn Star Impresses in WNBA Preseason Debut

Former UConn Huskies star Kaitlyn Chen made her unofficial WNBA debut for the Golden State Valkyries.

Apr 14, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Kaitlyn Chen poses with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert after being selected with the number thirty overall pick to the Golden State Valkyries in the 2025 WNBA Draft at The Shed at Hudson Yards. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Former UConn Huskies star Kaitlyn Chen's first ride with the Valkyries went fairly well.

Chen and the Golden State Valkyries made their unofficial WNBA debuts on Tuesday night when they faced the Los Angeles Sparks in a preseason game at Chase Center. Though Golden State fell by an 83-82 final, Chen made the most of over seven minutes of action by putting in two points and getting three rebounds.

Kaitlyn Chen makes her Valkyries debut and scores her first bucket for the Bay 💜 pic.twitter.com/6tY4M2carp

— espnW (@espnW) May 7, 2025

Chen's score provided some of the loudest cheers of the night: just before the midway mark of the fourth quarter, the former Husky scored on a fastbreak after Julie Vanloo intercepted a Liatu King pass. She was the only member of the Valkyries inaugural draft class to partake in Tuesday's exhibition, as top choice Juste Jocyte is still overseas while Shyanne Sellers was released and picked up by Atlanta.

"She's so loved from the basketball world in general," Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase said of Chen in her postgame statements, per Kenzo Fukuda of ClutchPoints. "Kaitlyn, she just leaves everything out on the floor and I know what I'm going to get from Kaitlyn. She plays 94-feet pick-up. She'll look at me and goes 'what do you want to run,' I'll say 'what do you want to run?'"

"[She's] someone you can trust but, at the same time, you can see she's fearless."

As the 30th pick of last month's WNBA Draft, Chen may face an uphill battle to make the Valkyries' roster for their expansion season debut on May 16. Her sterling resume collegiate resume (including individual honors from her time at Princeton and, of course, a national title run with last year's Huskies) and overcoming her supposed stature issues set an interesting professional path, whether it continues in the Bay Area or elsewhere.

Chen and the Valkyries play another preseason game on Sunday when they face the Phoenix Mercury (9 p.m. ET, KPIX+).

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags