Alumnae Abroad: 2013-14 season

Oct 31: Updated Candice's info.

Nine Cardinal alumnae are playing pro ball in the 2013-14 season in three continents — Australia, Asia and Europe.

Australia

Kayla Pedersen ('11) is in Australia [map] playing for the Dandenong Rangers.

The Australian WNBL league began play early in October, and the Rangers have made a very strong start with five wins.

Kayla is in the starting five. She has averaged 13.6 ppg and leads the team in rebounds (7.0 rpg) and blocks (0.6 bpg).

Asia

In Asia, the national teams are competing this week in the FIBA Asia Championship for a place in the FIBA 2014 World Championship games.

The club team schedules for the 2013-14 season haven't been posted yet, but I expect that play will begin early in November.

Jayne Appel ('10) is in China [map] again, playing for the Henan Elephants Dandong Liaoning.

This is Jayne's second season with Henan in China, and she just departed for China yesterday.

Nneka Ogwumike ('12) is in China [map] playing for the Guangdong Dolphins.

Nneka departed for China a week ago and tweeted that she got a wonderful welcome and was, "getting settled in quite nice for an exciting season!"

If you look at the Guangdong website for information about Nneka, you need to know that Google and Chrome translate her name to "Enka Di · Otto Hu Mick".

Europe

There are two international professional basketball leagues in Europe for women’s clubs — EuroLeague Women (the premier league) and EuroCup Women (the second-caliber league). Round 1 play for both leagues begins next week.

Most of the national club team leagues have already begun play.

Joslyn Tinkle ('12) is in Hungary [map] playing for Hat-Agro Uni Gyor. She's the first Stanford alumna to ever play in Hungary.

Uni Gyor is the team whose bus crashed en route to a preseason game on September 7. The team's manager and the head coach died. One player had her leg amputated, and two others have not returned to the team.

Uni Gyor just signed Courtney Vandersloot too and now have nine healthy players on the roster. Read more in Uni Gyor go with Vandersloot and Tinkle.

Uni Gyor is scheduled to play in EuroLeague Women for the third straight season as well as in the Hungarian A Division. Its first EuroLeague game is on November 7th and its first Hungarian League game on December 1.

Sarah Boothe ('12) worked with a trainer this summer to overcome the foot problems that plagued her at Stanford and has achieved her hope to play pro ball. She's in Poland [map] playing for Widzew Lodz.

Widzew has started the season poorly with six losses. Sarah has played in the last three games and averaged 3.7 ppg and 6.3 rpg.

Jillian Harmon ('09) is in Italy [map] playing for Lavezzini Parma for the second season.

Parma has begun its season with two wins and a loss.

Jillian is in the starting five. She's the leading scorer (19.0 ppg) and second-best rebounder (9.3 rpg).

Kristen Newlin/Nevin Nevlin('07) is in Turkey [map] playing for Fenerbahce for the sixth season.

Fenerbahce is one of the two teams that dominate the Turkish Women's Basketball League (TKBL). They've been the league champion seven times and the runner-up once in the past eight seasons. They're playing in Euroleague Women, for the eighth straight season. They reached the semi-finals in 2012 and the finals in 2013. Basketball journalist Paul Nilsen predicts, "Fabulous roster and coach means possible repeat Final with UMMC."

In a pre-season competition, Fenerbache defeated Galatasary to win the TKBL President's cup. They began the season with a loss, then won the next two games.

Kristen played only in the second game of the season.

Sebnem Kimyacioglu ('05) is not yet pursuing a law career and is in Turkey [map] playing for Galatasaray again.

Galatasaray is the other team that dominates the Turkish Women's Basketball League (TKBL). They suffered a major setback late last season with the loss of Lindsey Whalen, their top scorer. They finished second in the TKBL, lost the TKBL championship to Fenerbahce and finished eighth in EuroLeague Women.

After losing to Fenerbahce in the President's Cup, Galatsaray won its first three regular season games.

Seb has made six of eleven three-point attempts and averaged 7.0 ppg.

Cori Enghusen/Korel Engin ('02) is playing her twelfth season of professional basketball, her ninth in Turkey. She's in southern Turkey [map] this season, playing with Tarsus Belediyesi.

Tarsus has been in the middle or bottom tier of the Turkish league for the past few seasons. They played in EuroLeague Women last season and didn't make it past the first round. They're playing in EuroCup Women this season for the first time. They've lost their first three Turkish League games.

Cori is in the starting five. She's averaged six rebounds and five points per game.

Not playing

These five Cardinal alumnae who played abroad recently aren't this season:

Jeanette Pohlen ('11) tore her ACL just over a year ago and played in only 13 games with the Indiana Fever last summer. So she's probably focussing on strength and conditioning and enjoying her adorable new puppy.

Michelle Harrison ('10) never fully recovered from the knee injury she suffered in her sophomore year at Stanford. She tried playing pro ball last season, but has now retired and is trying to save her knee.

Candice Wiggins ('08) didn't play overseas last season because, "It's cool to relax and enjoy life. I'm 25 years old." She apparently made the same decision this season. is conducting basketball camps and serving as an ambassador for AIDS support and women's basketball. She's way too busy to play pro ball this season. CWiggins' World.

Cissy Pierce ('08) is still in Germany, but no longer playing pro ball – at least, not this season.

Nicole Powell ('04) had contracted to play in South Korea, but has taken a different path and is now an assistant coach at Gonzaga.