MIAMI (United States) – Luis Felipe López, Francisco García, Charlie Villanueva, Al Horford, Karl Anthony Towns, Chris Duarte, are some of the names that come to mind when talking about players who have represented the Dominican Republic in the NBA. Now basketball in the Caribbean country has another reason to feel proud. For the first time they have a representative in the best women's league in the world, the WNBA. Shooting guard Katie Benzan, who made her debut with the Washington Mystics last Sunday, May 8.

The player was on the court for two minutes and provided an assist in her team's victory over the Minnesota Lynx. The mere fact that she stepped on the court, wrote her name forever in the history of the sport of her country.

Benzan, after not being taken in the last league Draft, earned her spot with the Mystics during the preseason after making a big impression in training camp.

The 1.68 meter (5'6”) shooting guard came from playing in NCAA Division I with the University of Maryland, where she recently graduated in Journalism. Benzan player for the Terrapins for two seasons and in her senior and final season posted 10.2 points, 3.8 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 45 percent in triples (6th in the league), numbers that earned her All-Big Ten Conference Second Team and an Honorable Mention from the Associated Press All American team.

In the 2020-21 season, the Wellesley, Massachusetts native born to a Dominican father, led the entire NCAA in three-point field goal percentage shooting an impressive 50-percent from beyond the arc.

Before her arrival at the Maryland campus, the young woman who will turn 24-years old on the 16th of this month spent three years at Harvard University where she posted averages of 13.7 points, with 4.1 assists and 3.3 rebounds.

"For me personally, it's been a great five-year journey. You can definitely say I put my college years to good use! A bachelor's degree, soon a master's degree, so many wins and so many memories. I couldn't be more grateful for the experiences I had," Benzan wrote in a farewell letter after the end of the last NCAA season.

Now she’ll continue to accumulate experiences and memories in the best professional league in the world for women. Surely, she will have a very interesting story to write in the future putting that Journalism degree to good use.

FIBA