Kiah Stokes was sidelined with a concussion<\/a> suffered Sunday against the Sparks, and missed her first game of the season. A door opened for Fingall, who has played a total of 10 minutes in four games since signing with Golden State on June 7.\u00a0<\/p>\nCelebrating her birthday with her first extended stint on a WNBA court is not something she expected. But she is ready for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully I\u2019ll celebrate with a win, and if my name is called, by playing hard,\u201d Fingall told the Bay Area News Group before the game on Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m gonna enjoy this time with my team, and I\u2019m having a couple friends and former teammates coming to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has not stepped on the floor in the WNBA since playing two minutes in Connecticut on July 10. That lack of in-game burn has not stopped her from making an impression in coach Natalie Nakase\u2019s prized \u201cstay ready\u201d games with fellow Stanford alum Ashten Prechtel and the reserves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey both provide a different level of physicality,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cWith Nadia, she\u2019s a little bit more sturdy \u2026 and then Ashten has a little more length.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fingall was a four-year contributor at Stanford before graduating in 2020 and embarking on a career in international hoops.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She played for Valencia in Spain from 2023-25, leading her team to two league titles and two Supercopa de Espa\u00f1a championships, winning the Supercopa de Espa\u00f1a tournament MVP award in 2024.<\/p>\n
Before signing with the Valkyries, Fingall suited up for Casademont Zaragoza in the northeast of Spain, where she averaged 8.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and had a 44.7 field goal percentage in 19 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cStanford definitely prepared me for understanding my role and knowing my role, and doing that to the best of my ability,\u201d Fingall said. \u201cAnd now, though my role is different than it is overseas, it\u2019s also a completely different situation. So I\u2019m just trying to take advantage of the opportunity I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Fingall was starring in Spain, Prechtel became a steady reserve at Stanford.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After overlapping with Fingall for one season, Prechtel helped the Cardinal win the 2021 national title. She graduated from Stanford in 2023 having played in 129 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Heading into Wednesday\u2019s game, Prechtel played in one game for the Valkyries this year after playing in Hungary, Japan and Mexico since graduation. Like Fingall, she has the trust of Nakase and the belief from the coaching staff that she\u2019s prepared for a larger role.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When it comes to Fingall, her skillset reminded Nakase of the injured Stokes.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn\u2019t mind the bump and she actually hits first,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cShe screens really, really well, and she loves to create plays. Like she loves to set screens and have screen assists, and if she catches it, she loves to go uphill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their opportunities at extended run might not be for long.<\/p>\n
The Valkyries have four days off between Wednesday\u2019s game against the Sky and their Monday showdown with the Wings, giving Stokes time to recover from her concussion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But even though Stokes participated in shootaround on Wednesday morning, Nakase said the team is being understandably cautious with her return, and following league-mandated protocol.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKiah\u2019s a great player, and I\u2019ve definitely gotten my shot blocked quite a few times,\u201d Fingall said. \u201cShe\u2019s not the most talkative person, but she\u2019s a silent leader on this team, and we\u2019re definitely gonna miss her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Birthdays often bring gifts.\u00a0 For Nadia Fingall, the Stanford grad\u2019s 28th trip around the sun…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":997283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[1339,15173,276,2473,1362,1370,15178,2750,15180,62,399567,67,132,68,232],"class_list":["post-997282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-sports","tag-stanford-basketball","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117085903706754174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/997283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=997282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=997282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}