Stephanie Soares (born 17 April 2000) is a Brazilian professional basketball player who last played in the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. The league comprises 13 teams (scheduled to expand to 15 in 2026). The WNBA is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. The WNBA w ...

(WNBA) for the

Dallas Wings The Dallas Wings are an American professional basketball team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Wings compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team is owned by a group ...

. She played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

The Master's University The Master's University is a private non-denominational Christian university in Santa Clarita, California. History The college was founded in 1927. It was originally named Los Angeles Baptist College and Seminary. In 1961, it moved to Ne ...

and

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...

. She represented

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

at the

2019 Pan American Games The 2019 Pan American Games (), officially the XVIII Pan American Games () and commonly known as Lima 2019, were a multi-sport event governed by the Panam Sports Organization held in Lima, Peru from July 26 to August 11, 2019, with preliminar ...

and won a gold medal.

College career

Soares began her collegiate career at

. During the 2018–19 season in her freshman year, she led the nation in rebounding (470), blocked shots (173), and recorded 29 double-doubles. She set the single-season program records for rebounds, rebounding average, and blocked shots. Following the season she was named the Golden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) Player of the Year and GSAC Defensive Player of the Year. During the 2019–20 season, she averaged 20.7 points and 13.6 rebound, and led the nation in rebounds (423), defensive rebounds (326), blocked shots, (151), and double-doubles (24). Following the season she was named the GSAC Player of the Year and GSAC Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive year. She was also named to the WBCA NAIA All-America team and named the WBCA NAIA Player of the Year. She became the first player in TMU history to be named NAIA Player of the Year. She missed the 2020–21 season after she underwent surgery to repair tears in both her

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation. In ...

(ACL) and

medial collateral ligament The medial collateral ligament (MCL), also called the superficial medial collateral ligament (sMCL) or tibial collateral ligament (TCL), is one of the major ligaments of the knee. It is on the medial (inner) side of the knee joint and occurs in ...

(MCL). During the 2021–22 season, she averaged 20.5 points and 12.7 rebounds, and helped lead The Master's University 32–4 record and the NAIA national quarterfinals. Following the season she was named the NAIA Player of the Year. She was also named to the WBCA NAIA All-America team and named the WBCA NAIA Player of the Year for the second time in her career. On 19 April 2022, Soares announced she was transferring to

. During the 2022–23 season, Soares started all 13 games she played in before suffering a season-ending ACL injury at Oklahoma on 8 January 2023. She recorded eight double-doubles and averaged 15.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per game.

Professional career

On 10 April 2023, Soares was drafted fourth overall by the

Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference. The team was ...

in the

2023 WNBA draft The 2023 WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) Draft, the WNBA's draft for the 2023 WNBA season and 28th draft in WNBA history, was held following the 2022–23 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 2023 draft took place at Spr ...

. She was immediately traded to the

in exchange for a 2024 second-round draft pick, and Atlanta's 2025 first-round draft pick. On 6 February 2024, she signed with the Wings. She missed the

2023 WNBA season The 2023 WNBA season was the 27th season of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The defending champions, the Las Vegas Aces, repeated as champions after defeating the New York Liberty 3 games to 1 in the Finals. The regular s ...

after recovering from ACL surgery. On 13 August 2024, Soares signed with AZS AJP Gorzów Wielkopolski of the

Basket Liga Kobiet Basket Liga Kobiet (BLK), officially known as the Orlen Basket Liga Kobiet (OBLK) due to its sponsorship by Orlen, is a professional women's club basketball league in Poland. It constitutes the first and highest-tier level of the Polish league p ...

(BLK) for the 2024–25 season. However, she was unable to join the team due to a knee injury. On 4 January 2025, Soares was waived by the Wings.

National team career

Soares made her international debut for

at the

. During the tournament she averaged 5.6 points and 2.4 rebounds in five games. She averaged 16 minutes a game and led the team with seven blocked shots and won a gold medal.

Career statistics

WNBA

''Stats current through end of 2024 season'' , - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, 22, , 3, , 8.0, , .294, , .167, , 1.000, , 2.1, , 0.5, , 0.1, , 0.4, , 0.5, , 1.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:left;", Career , style="text-align:left;", 1 year, 1 team , 22, , 3, , 8.0, , .294, , .167, , 1.000, , 2.1, , 0.5, , 0.1, , 0.4, , 0.5, , 1.1

College

, - , width="10%" style="text-align:center;" , 2018–19 , style="text-align:center;", TMU , 35 , , 34 , , 29.8 , , .572 , , .000 , , .628 , , 13.4 , , 1.3 , , 1.4 , , 4.9 , , 2.3 , , 16.2 , - , style="text-align:center;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:center;", TMU , 31 , , 31 , , 29.5 , , .615 , , .347 , , .755 , , 13.6 , , 2.1 , , 1.3 , , 4.9 , , 3.6 , , 20.7 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:center;", TMU , colspan=12 style="text-align:center;", ''Did not play due to injury'' , - , style="text-align:center;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:center;", TMU , 34 , , 33 , , 30.1 , , .584 , , .228 , , .789 , , 12.2 , , 2.2 , , 1.9 , , 3.7 , , 3.5 , , 20.5 , - , style="text-align:center;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:center;",

, 13 , , 13 , , 22.6 , , .544 , , .306 , , .667 , , 9.9 , , 1.4 , , 1.1 , , 3.0 , , 2.8 , , 14.4 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan=2, Career , 113 , , 111 , , 28.0 , , .579 , , .220 , , .710 , , 12.3 , , 1.8 , , 1.4 , , 4.1 , , 3.1 , , 18.0

Personal life

Soares is the daughter of Rogerio and Susan Soares, who were

Christian missionaries A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and ...

. She has four siblings, Tim, Jessica, Tiago and Rebecca. Her father played for The Master's University (TMU) men's basketball team, while her mother was the national

Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys baseball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls cross country, boys football, boys and girl ...

as a high school senior in 1986, and played college basketball at

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Tim, Jessica and Tiago all also played college basketball at TMU.

References

External links

The Master's University Mustangs bioIowa State Cyclones bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soares, Stephanie 2000 births Living people Brazilian expatriate basketball people in the United States Brazilian women's basketball players Basketball players at the 2019 Pan American Games Dallas Wings players Forwards (basketball) Iowa State Cyclones women's basketball players Pan American Games gold medalists in basketball Basketball players from São Paulo The Master's Mustangs women's basketball players Washington Mystics draft picks Pan American Games gold medalists for Brazil Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games 21st-century Brazilian sportswomen