By Foster Nicholas | Sports Editor
In the transfer portal era, finding someone who fits the team’s culture is just as important as finding someone who can be a star. For No. 12 Baylor women’s basketball, senior center Aaronette Vonleh was a five-star in both aspects.
Before playing a game in the green and gold, the 6-foot-3 West Linn, Ore. native was named to the Lisa Leslie Award Watch List and dubbed the Preseason Big 12 Co-Newcomer of the Year. National recognition aside, she also instantly gelled with a Baylor roster featuring eight returning players.
Nicknamed “Netty” by coaches and players, Vonleh instantly caught the eye of head coach Nicki Collen when she entered the transfer portal. Only two players graduated from the Bears’ 2023-24 team, and each of them played in the post.
“A priority in the portal was adding size,” Collen said. “This is a league full of elite centers at a time when you’re starting to see, all the way up to the top levels, centers run to the corners and shoot 3s. This is a league full of players that get paint touches.”
Having size in the post has never been more important for the Bears. With 6-foot-7 TCU graduate student Sedona Prince, Kansas State’s Ayoka Lee (the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year) and Iowa State sophomore Audi Crooks playing center in the Big 12, adding Vonleh to battle will change the way Baylor approaches the defensive side of the ball.
“I thought it was important that we could play one-on-one against the (Ayoka) Lees and the (Audi) Crookses and the Sedona Princes of the league and could hold our own,” Collen said. “It was a huge, important thing for us and we were really lucky to end up with Aaronette.”
Vonleh averaged career-highs in points (14.0), rebounds (5.1), steals (1.0) and blocks (1.1) per game in 2023-24 with Colorado. Her breakout junior season landed her PAC-12 All-Conference honors and helped the Buffaloes advance to the Sweet 16, where they fell to No. 1 seeded Iowa, led by Caitlin Clark.
With Collen and the Bears coming off a Sweet 16 loss of their own, size was just as important as experience. Vonleh had both. The fit was a perfect match on paper, and all the intangibles fell in line, too.
“There was a lot of reasons [I chose Baylor], but the main two were the coaching staff and my teammates,” Vonleh said. “I think we have the best coaching staff in the country. There’s just a ton of knowledge and experience that they pour into us every day. So, we just get better every single day playing under them. Then my teammates, we have a lot of good chemistry. We get along on and off the court and it just makes playing with each other that much easier.”
Not only did Collen pull all the right strings, but assistant coach and Director of Player Development Sophia Young-Malcolm played a key role in landing Vonleh.
“Aaronette, she’s just a finisher. The cool thing about Netty is she’s as good as advertised, but super humble, wants to be coached [and] wants to get better,” Collen said. “Sophia has really taken her under her wing, and she’s kind of bought into working with her on her post game, on her reverse pivot game [and] on what it’s going to feel like to get double-teamed at times.”
Vonleh, the sister of former 6-foot-10 NBA center Noah Vonleh, wasted no time showing off her brother’s post moves as well as what she had learned from Young-Malcolm. In the Bears’ 100-39 exhibition win over Langston, the center opened the game with an and-1 layup on a slightly smaller defender.
And in mismatches like that, the Bears take notice and take pride in feeding the post.
“Every time I see her down there, I want to throw the ball. Whether there’s two people or three people on her, I feel like she can score on anybody in the country,” graduate guard Sarah Andrews said. “She’s going to make a huge difference for us this year.”
In Collen’s scheme, possessions sometimes run through the post, so with kick outs and misdirection, Vonleh’s size also involves her teammates. Clogging up double teams frees up Andrews, junior forward Bella Fontleroy, graduate guard Jana Van Gytenbeek and senior guard Yaya Felder to find open looks from beyond the arc. They all hit shots from downtown at a 32.5% clip or better during the 2023-24 season without the help of a dominant center.
“Her screens, oh, they’re just wonderful,” senior guard Jada Walker said with a smile. “No one can get around her screens. It makes it super hard. Then, just her being in the paint draws so much attention. It makes people like Jana [Van Gytenbeek], Yaya [Felder] and Sarah wide open for three. So, it just spaces the floor out and makes offense so much easier for us.”
The quick integration with teammates has created solid chemistry in the locker room, which has already put Vonleh on All-Big 12 watchlists. However, to Vonleh, personal accolades weren’t as important as winning games in front of passionate fans of a growing sport.
One of her reasons for coming to Baylor was the excitement from the community. With a fanbase eager for success, Vonleh found exactly what she sought: a place to call home.
“I think it’s 10 times more fun when you don’t have to beg people to support all the hard work that you do,” Vonleh said. “I think it’s a plus and an advantage that in Waco, Baylor women’s basketball is really loved and appreciated. So it’s going to be exciting to get into Foster for our first game and see so many faces in the seats. That definitely was a factor, too.”
The Bears will tip off the regular season at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Foster Pavilion against Incarnate Word.
