Pro Bruin Rundown: Onyenwere, Canada thrive in WNBA; Fishel, Reyes win championship with Tigres UANL

As UCLA Athletics takes a break for the summer, professional sports are still in full swing, with many Bruin alumni representing. Each week during the summer, Daily Bruin Sports will take a look at the standout performances of former UCLA greats from the past week as we count down the days until fall.

Women’s basketball: Michaela Onyenwere, Phoenix Mercury; Jordin Canada, Los Angeles Sparks

Well into the WNBA regular season, the stat lines continue to spell out highs for a pair of former Bruins.

A change of scenery is what it took for forward Michaela Onyenwere, whose numbers have ballooned since her trade to the Phoenix Mercury before the 2023 campaign. A Bruin from 2017 to 2021, she was with the New York Liberty for the previous two seasons – the very team that drafted her No. 6 overall and with whom she won Rookie of the Year.

Onyenwere has since become a regular starter alongside All-Star center Brittney Griner and legendary guard Diana Taurasi. Her current averages of 25.7 minutes per game, 10.6 points per game and a 45% field goal percentage – all career highs – exceed those of her triumphant first season in the professional ranks.

Just a season ago, she fell to the role of backup power forward, seeing 13.7 minutes and 4.7 points per contest. The past two weeks alone have put that past firmly behind her.

With 24 points against the Minnesota Lynx on July 7, Onyenwere notched the second-highest single-game total of her career, and she has scored at least 18 points in three of her last four games.

And for guard Jordin Canada, finding a niche in a new place has done wonders.

The Bruins’ all-time assists leader – last donning the blue and gold in 2018 – has played close to her alma mater as of late with career-best results. Canada is in her second season with the Los Angeles Sparks after four years and two WNBA titles with the Seattle Storm.

Averaging 31.2 minutes and 12.6 points per game, the former No. 5-overall pick’s 32.7% field goal and 92.6% free throw percentage are both top marks of her career. Canada’s become a reliable scorer for the Sparks, cracking double-digit points in 14 of 18 games for the squad so far this season. She only hit that mark in 16 of 32 appearances a season ago.

Her improvement hasn’t occurred exclusively on one end of the court either – Canada’s 5.6 assists and 2.9 rebounds per contest are heights she’s never reached before.

Women’s soccer: Mia Fishel and Maricarmen Reyes, Tigres UANL

Mia Fishel’s final season in Westwood ended as anything but glorious. She was part of the Pac-12 champion 2021 squad that, after an undefeated regular season, lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1995.

Now, on an international pitch just a few years later, she has triumphed.

Alongside former Bruins midfielder Maricarmen Reyes and forward/midfielder Anika Rodriguez, the forward for Tigres UANL Femenil won the Campeón de Campeones 1-0 over Club América on Tuesday night. The crowning victory came in the league title match of the highest level of women’s soccer in Mexico – Liga MX Femenil – where Fishel has been active since departing UCLA.

The Campeón de Campeones pits the winners of the Apertura and Clausura seasons against each other to determine an ultimate champion for the calendar year, and for the 2022 Apertura champion Amazons, Fishel stamped her name all over the scoresheets.

Fishel finished as the club’s leading scorer in both the 2022 Apertura and 2023 Clausura with 17 and 13 goals, respectively. With the former tally – achieved in as many games – she became the first foreign-born player in league history to capture the Golden Boot.

Once selected No. 5 overall in the 2022 NWSL draft by the Orlando Pride, Fishel turned down the offer in favor of Tigres UANL, looking to win big with a championship-caliber team. The Pride was then coached by former UCLA coach Amanda Cromwell, the very mentor Fishel played under during her days as a Bruin.

She now gets to share the subsequent glory with former teammates, one of whom is no stranger to championship moments.

Reyes ended her Bruin career as the game-winning goal scorer in UCLA’s comeback thriller against North Carolina to win the 2022 NCAA title. Even before she joined the Amazons, she had professional experience on the Mexican National Team, with whom she reached the 2018 CONCACAF U-20 championships.

She didn’t wait around to hear her name called in the 2023 NWSL draft, setting up her pro career less than three weeks after her final game with UCLA by signing with UANL on Dec. 27.

And in the early stages of Reyes’ post-college years, her individual success is again translating to the team. The former Bruin from 2018 to 2022 has scored seven goals in 22 appearances for the Amazons and is poised to remain with the club alongside Fishel and Rodriguez moving forward.