Ogwumike sisters set to square off

Mechelle Voepel (espnW) writes:

Sunday in Connecticut, Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike will square off as foes for the first time in their WNBA careers. They really don't look forward to it, although they're as upbeat as ever in talking about it.

Click here for the story.

Ogwumike family reunion on Sunday

Nneka and Chiney, teammates in high school and college, will play against each other for the first time on Sunday when Nneka's Los Angeles Sparks visit Chiney's Connecticut Sun.

Kayla Pedersen, who plays for the Sun, and Candice Wiggins, who plays for the Sparks, may also be called in from the bendh.

The game is scheduled for Sunday July 13 at 10 am PT. It will be televised by NBATV and streamed to the internet by WNBA LiveAccess.

Read more...

Keeping up with Chiney

Chiney blogs about her life in Connecticut and her graduation from Stanford in Thriving on Transition

New's Wedding

Posted by Harriet Benson

Kristen Newlin ('07) and Emre Vatansever married June 21, 2014 in Stanford's Memorial Church.  Kristen, known to us as New, met Emre in Turkey where she plays and he coaches basketball. Both have become bilingual.

New's bridal party included Christy Titchenal (Titch) as maid of honor, Sebnem Kimyacioglu, Nicole Powell, sister-in-law Ashleigh Newlin, and Turkish basketball player Tugba Palazoglu.  Nicole left early for her Seattle Storm commitment; Tugba not pictured.

Family and friends came from afar.  Among the attendees were Amy, Charmin, Marcella, DeeDee, and several basketball classmates, including Krista Birnie (Rapp), Markisha, Shelley, Morgan, Brooke, Clare, Jillian, and JJ.  Rapp's, Titch's, Seb's, Brooke's, Jill's, and Nicole's families also came to the wedding.

New danced at her wedding

Here are more photos of attendees:

New wore a tradional Turkish garment at a pre-wedding party.

Emre and Kristen return to Turkey this fall where New will play for Istanbul University.

Jayne speaks out on LGBT rights

Jayne is definitely on board for "WNBA Pride", the league's marketing initiative to reach out to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Read more... in Mechelle Voepel's espnW article.

Jamie Carey is assistant coach at Colorado

Do you remember Jamie Carey's 3-point shooting? She made 44.5% of her 3-point attempts in her freshman season (2000). That still holds as the Stanford career record.

We'll be seeing her back in Maples next season — she is now an assistant basketball coach at the Univerity of Colorado.

Since retiring from professional basketball four years ago, Jamie has been the assistant women’s national team director at USA Basketball and has been coaching high school basketball in Colorado.

Read more...

New Cardinal hoopster? ... or fan?

Meet Annika Noel Birnie

Daughter of Krista Rappahahn ('06) and David Birnie

Arrived May 24

Class of '35?

Chiney named Pac-12 Woman of the Year

Yesterday Chiney was selected as the Pac-12 Conference Woman of the Year for the 2013-14 academic year.

As such, she becomes the Conference’s candidate for the NCAA Woman of the Year, presented annually to graduating student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, community service and leadership.

The Pac-12 announcement details Chiney's accomplishments that qualify her so richly for this honor.

Here is more information about the NCAA award.

Nneka & Chiney's challenge

Nneka and Chiney are continuing their efforts to empower girls in Nigeria with a campaign that has three major goals:

• Engage American girls basketball players in community service.
• Raise awareness among Americans about what is happening right now in Nigeria.
• Raise money for UNICEF Nigeria's emergency fund that will help to support programs such as girls education and girls empowerment among other critical initiatives protecting and saving the lives of children.

Michelle Smith ( espnW) tells the story in Ogwumikes take on Nigeria fight.

Nneka and Chiney explain the campaign and invite participation in Nneka & Chiney's Challenge.

Katy Steding named head coach at Boston University

Boston University has named Katy Steding (Stanford '90) as its women’s basketball head coach.

This will be Katy's 14th year as a collegiate or pro coach. She began her career as the head coach at NAIA Warner Pacific College for seven seasons. She was then an associate coach in the WNBA, at Columbia University, at USF and, for the past two seasons, at Cal. This is her first job as an NCAA Division I head coach.

Read more in the announcements from Boston University and from the Boston Globe.