UCLA Bruins women’s basketball sets records at WNBA draft

A little over a week after making UCLA history by winning their first NCAA-era National Championship in women's basketball, the Bruins have set another record - most players chosen from a single program in one WNBA draft.

The WNBA on Monday selected five exiting Bruins in the first round, taking most of the champs' starting lineup, including Lauren Betts, who went fourth overall, the highest of any UCLA senior. She is headed to the Washington Mystics in D.C.

"This season has been so special. I've enjoyed every second," Betts told ESPN after her selection, talking about how she changed during her title-winning season. "I'm playing with my best friends, my sister [freshman Sienna Betts]; I've had the most amazing season, and I feel like you can just see the positivity that I play with."

Betts' selection led off a one-two-three punch, with Bruin Gabriela Jaquez selected next - fifth overall by the Chicago Sky - and Kiki Rice, the sixth pick, who goes to the Toronto Tempo. Both women surpassed pundits' expectations about when they'd be chosen.

"I think that just having these dreams - of going to UCLA and to be in the WNBA and to just achieve them, not just myself but with my teammates, just really means everything," Jaquez said as her family, including older brother, UCLA alum-turned-Miami Heat player Jaime Jaquez, who was FaceTimed into the event, looked on.

A short while later, Angela Dugalić, the Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year, was selected ninth, joining Betts on the Washington Mystics. Both of them will be playing alongside one of their UCLA assistant coaches this season - Michaela Onyenwere, who just signed a multiyear deal with the Mystics.

Gianna Kneepkens closed out the first round of the WNBA when she was selected by the Connecticut Sun. UCLA set a new record with Kneepkens' selection: the school with the most players chosen in the first round.

UCLA's starting lineup's transition to the WNBA was complete in the second round when Charlisse Leger-Walker was selected to join Kneepkens on the Connecticut Sun. Leger-Walker marked the 18th overall pick - and the first ever New Zealander drafted to the WNBA.

"I think it means a lot," Leger Walker told ESPN. "And I'm just really humbled that I can kind of be that role model, and I just hope that everybody watching from New Zealand just knows that they belong here and if they set their sights high, they can be limitless."

Head coach Cori Close was at the draft, cheering on her exiting team members as they begin their next chapter in their basketball journeys.