That means Westbeld could make her WNBA debut in the season opener on the road against the Indiana Fever on Saturday.
Westbeld, the 16th overall pick in the draft and fourth pick of the second round in April, appeared at a Media Day press conference Monday alongside Haley Van Lith, one of the two players the Sky drafted in the first round.
Both players were asked what it means to have solidified their spots on the roster. Westbeld said, “Gratitude is the first thing that comes to my mind and waking up every day and understanding the platform and opportunity that I’ve been given, but at the same time, like Haley said, I’m coming in hungry every day. It’s just a consistent mindset that I have to have regardless of anything that people are saying.”
Westbeld, a 6-foot-3 forward, scored five points in 12 minutes in her first preseason game but did not score in nine and three minutes in the next two exhibition games.
Asked at Media Day on Monday what helped Westbeld and Van Lith make the roster, Sky coach Tyler Marsh said, “It’s the work ethic first and foremost. I think that both have been really attentive to what we’re trying to put in place."
Westbeld averaged 7.6 points and 2.8 rebounds in 21 games as a fifth-year senior at Notre Dame. She missed the first 13 games of the season after undergoing foot surgery in August. In three NCAA tournament games, she averaged 7.7 points, helping Notre Dame reach the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight season.
“This last year was a little shaky for me,” Westbeld said, “but stepping into this moment right now, it speaks to what I’ve been through and what I have done. I’m excited to say that I’m only scratching the surface.”
Last week, Westbeld spoke to CBS Sports about her experience last season.
"I think everything happens for a reason,“ she said, ”and especially when it comes to injuries and timing of injuries. You can always question why, and I think the timing of my injury was a little bit different, especially when you see what could have been. I think that I could have had the surgery right after the (2023-24) season last year. It wasn’t as significant and I didn’t know better. In hindsight, it’s always 20/20.
“I’m not gonna beat myself up about anything. I had the cards that I was dealt, and I walked through it with grace, and I walked through it with a mindset of getting better every single day. Coming back from that surgery, it was definitely tough, and it put me in a very challenging situation, one that I had never been in before. But in the same sense, I’ve gained so much resilience and so much character from that situation that I don’t think I could be in a better position, standing where I am standing right now, just from the ability to fight through adversity and fight through tough things.”
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