The Lead
- Selected third overall, Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron becomes the highest selected ACC player since former Louisville standout AD Durr went second overall to New York in 2019. Citron also becomes first ACC player selected in the first round since Louisville’s Emily Engstler in 2022.
- With three first-round selections, the ACC saw multiple players picked in the first round for the first time since 2019, when five ACC players were selected.
ACC Players Selected in 2025 WNBA Draft
Round 1 – 3rd, Sonia Citron, G, Notre Dame – Washington
Round 1 – 8th, Saniya Rivers, G, NC State – Connecticut
Round 1 – 12th, Aziaha James, G, NC State – Dallas
Round 2 – 16th, Maddy Westbeld, F, Notre Dame – Chicago
Round 2 – 19th, Makayla Timpson, F, Florida State – Indiana
Round 3 – 28th, Liatu King, F, Notre Dame – Los Angeles
NEW YORK (theACC.com) – A total of six former Atlantic Coast Conference standouts were selected in the 2025 WNBA Draft Monday evening at The Shed at Hudson Yards in New York City.
Former Notre Dame guard Sonia Citron heard her named called first, selected third overall to the Washington Mystics. Citron became the 11th Notre Dame player to be chosen in the opening round and the highest since former standout Jackie Young was picked first overall in 2019.
Former NC State standout Saniya Rivers was the next ACC player off the board, becoming the highest selected Wolfpack player in a non-Elite Draft in program history. In 1997, Rhonda Mapp was taken third overall in the Elite Draft. Four picks later, former teammate Aziaha James was taken by the Dallas Wings with the final selection in the first round. The three first-round selections mark the most for the ACC in a single draft since 2019, when five players from the league were taken in the opening round.
In the second round, two more ACC players were selected, as Notre Dame’s Maddy Westbeld went 16th overall to the Chicago Sky and Florida State’s Makayla Timpson was taken 19th overall by the Indiana Fever. In the third and final round, Notre Dame forward Liatu King was picked 28th overall by the Los Angeles Sparks.
Overall, the six selections are the most from the ACC since 2022 after having a combined six picks in 2023 and 2024. Notre Dame becomes the first ACC school to have three players taken in the same draft since the Fighting Irish saw four players come off the board in 2019. Louisville also had three players taken that same season.
Last year, 12 players from ACC schools participated in the 2024 WNBA Playoffs, as Louisville’s Myisha Hines-Allen, Stanford’s Alanna Smith and Notre Dame’s Kayla McBride participated in the WNBA Finals.