Baylor women’s basketball has added another major piece for the future, with head coach Nicki Collen announcing Saturday morning that Kate Koval has signed on for the 2026-27 roster.
Collen didn’t hide the excitement in welcoming the 6-5 forward to Waco.
"We are beyond excited to welcome Kate to Baylor," Collen said. "She has played at an elite level over the last two seasons and has shown the consistent ability to score around the rim and protect the rim.
Kate, at 6-5, can be a decision maker on the perimeter both as a scorer and facilitator, which will expand our offense. Her shot-blocking ability will help anchor our defense.
She is an elite student with a big heart for others, and our fans will love her on and off the court."
Koval arrives after one season in Baton Rouge, where she started 17 times and played in all 35 games. She averaged 8.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, while her 43 blocks finished 11th in the Southeastern Conference. Twice in league play, she piled up a season-high five blocks - once against Arkansas at home and again on the road at Mississippi State.
The Kyiv, Ukraine, native also had her biggest scoring night in non-conference action, dropping a career-high 23 points against Alabama State. She went 8 of 15 from the field and added seven points at the free-throw line in that game.
Across the 2025-26 season, Koval posted seven double-doubles, pushing her career total to nine. She also set career bests in free throws made (7), free-throw attempts (9), field-goal attempts (15) and steals (9).
Before Baton Rouge, Koval earned All-ACC Freshman Team honors at Notre Dame. She made 10 starts there, averaged 5.3 points and 4.7 rebounds, and handed out 40 assists while blocking 55 shots. That block total ranked fourth among freshmen in Fighting Irish history, and her top rim-protecting performance came with a career-high seven blocks at Lafayette.
Her first career double-double came against James Madison, when she finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds. That was part of a remarkable opening stretch in which she put up 40 points, 33 rebounds, 15 blocks and eight assists over her first three college games. That run made her the first freshman in Division I basketball, male or female, to reach those numbers since Anthony Davis.
Koval entered college with plenty of national buzz, ranked the No. 5 overall prospect and the No. 1 post player in ESPN’s HoopGurlz recruiting rankings after earning McDonald's All-American and SLAM All-American honors.
Baylor is coming off a 25-9 season in 2025-26, finishing third in the Big 12 while extending its streaks to 26 straight 20-win seasons and 22 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances. The Bears led the conference in blocks per game and 3-point field-goal percentage defense, and they ranked 14th nationally in field-goal percentage defense.
Since Collen took over before the 2021-22 season, Baylor has won more games than any other Big 12 program. Over that same five-year stretch, Collen ranks third among active major-conference head coaches in wins at their current school and fifth in winning percentage.
In Other News...
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Baylor heads into its meeting with Prairie View A&M with a different look under center, as junior Nate Bennett is set to take the lead while the Bears adjust their offensive plan. The emphasis figures to tilt toward the ground game, a sensible move with the staff leaning into what it can control while also using the week to keep building rhythm around a new quarterback setup.
On the other side, Prairie View A&M brings a problem Baylor cannot ignore in Tevin Carter, who gives the Panthers a dual-threat element the Bears will have to account for on every snap. The game also comes with a community-minded backdrop, with Baylor folding in fan engagement events around the matchup, but the bigger football question is whether the Bears can stay balanced enough to keep their offense on schedule while handling Carters playmaking. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Home Opener Suddenly Carries One Big Concern On Offense
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The absences dont stop there, either, with multiple other players listed as unavailable. For a team trying to use its first home game to build rhythm, the immediate concern is how the offense holds together without its starter and how quickly the Bears can sort through the depth chart before the opener puts the pressure on. [Read more 🡒]
Baylor Just Proved It Can Push No. 1 Nebraska To The Brink
No. 20 Baylor left Lincoln with a sweep loss, but there was enough inside the three-set defeat to suggest the Bears made the nations top team work. Playing at Bob Devaney Sports Center, Baylor fell 3-0 to Nebraska and moved to 5-2 on the season, yet it was also the first opponent this year to keep pace enough to reach at least 20 points in every set against the Cornhuskers.
Ksenia Rakhmanchik led Baylor with 18 kills, giving the Bears a go-to presence even in a tough road environment. The result still counts as a loss, but the performance offered a clearer picture of where Baylor stands early in the season: close enough to challenge the best team in the country, with room to turn those competitive stretches into something more. [Read more 🡒]