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Appel returns to San Antonio
Stanford senior All-American goes No. 5 in WNBA draft

Stanford senior All-American center Jayne Appel was drafted by the San Antonio Silver Stars in the first round, the fifth pick overall, of the WNBA draft Thursday.

Appel will return to the city where her college career ended (on Tuesday night) with a chance to show who she really is as a women's basketball player.

Appel, wearing a boot on her injured right ankle, was ready to start her professional career.

"I'll do the best I can to stay in shape and get healthy," she said. "Getting healthy is the big thing so I can help this team."

Appel, the Pac-10 Player of the Year in her junior season, is a two-time All-American who holds the Pac-10 career rebounding record and has scored over 2,000 points in her Cardinal career.

"It's important to be able to go either left or right," Appel said. "One of the other draftees thought I was left-handed until she saw me signing a basketball. But it's definitely important to have a lot of versatility with my moves and to defend."

The Silver Stars drafted Middle Tennessee State's Alysha Cark in the second round.

Connecticut All-American Tina Charles was the first overall pick of the draft, going appropriately enough, to the Connecticut Sun.

Appel concluded her college career on Tuesday in the NCAA Final Four finale, a 53-47 loss to UConn in the Alamodome in San Antonio. Battling her ankle injury, Appel was 0-for-12 for the field and went scoreless for the first time in her illustrious career.

Now she a chance to show the folks in San Antonio just how good she really is.