- M.A. Voepel covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Villanova Wildcats women’s basketball star Maddy Siegrist said Friday she would talk with her parents about the decision to declare for the WNBA draft. But she seemed pretty certain her college career was over after the No. 4 seed Wildcats’ 70-65 Sweet 16 loss to the No. 9 seed Miami Hurricanes in the Greenville 2 Regional.
“You know, this was a good way to go out,” Siegrist said in the Villanova locker room. “Making this round with this team, it was really special.”
It was Villanova’s first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2003. Siegrist, the Big East Player of the Year and a first-team Associated Press All-American, led Division I women’s and men’s basketball this season in scoring average, finishing at 29.2 points per game. Her 1,081 points are the second-most scored in an NCAA Division I women’s season, trailing only the 1,109 of the Washington Huskies’ Kelsey Plum in 2016-17. Plum is now with the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces.
Siegrist had 31 points and 13 rebounds Friday, although she struggled from the field, going 8-of-29. She now has scored a school-record 2,896 points.
Siegrist redshirted the 2018-2019 season because of an ankle injury but has been a Villanova starter the past four seasons. Among her highlights this season were breaking the program scoring record set by Shelly Pennefather set in 1983-1987 and scoring a career-high 50 points on Feb. 11 against Seton Hall. She also averaged 9.2 rebounds and has totaled 1,102 in her career.
The 6-foot-2 forward is projected as a top-five pick in the most recent WNBA mock draft by ESPN.
“I couldn’t be more happy to play with this group,” Siegrist said. “I got to Villanova and just wanted to be good enough to play here. A lot of the things that happened, I never thought could have happened.
“Trying to put it in perspective now is tough, but I’m really proud how far I came, and I’m proud of my career.”
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