Kate Koval will continue her basketball career at Baylor after receiving an NCAA transfer waiver, the school announced Saturday. The 6-foot-5 center left LSU and will join a Baylor roster being reshaped ahead of coach Nicki Collen’s sixth season in Waco.
A Baylor spokesperson said the school could not yet confirm whether Koval will be eligible to play immediately because classes at Baylor began in late August. The timing of her availability is therefore not yet clear.
Koval, who is from Kyiv, Ukraine, departed LSU after the program added Anna Minaeva, a Russian player who had competed professionally in Moscow. Koval’s father serves in the Ukrainian military. Because her decision came after the transfer portal closed, she made a public appeal to the NCAA.
In a social media post, Koval described the effect of the war on her family and hometown. “People close to me have been killed and wounded in Russian attacks, and places where I grew up and first began playing basketball have been destroyed by missile strikes,” she wrote.
NCAA rules allow transfers outside sport-specific windows when an urgent event beyond an athlete’s control, unrelated to athletic opportunities or participation at the current school, requires an immediate departure. Baylor finished last season 25-9 and retained its major transfer-portal pieces, but four starters graduated. The Bears had already added three transfers besides Koval and did not have a freshman recruiting class.
