In the 2025-26 NCAA season, Big Ten Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, Lauren Betts, led UCLA to a national championship. Although Betts is well into her rookie WNBA season with the Washington Mystics, the accolades from her unforgettable senior season continue to pour in. Now, with her latest achievement, Betts has joined WNBA stars Caitlin Clark and fellow UCLA greats in an exclusive club.
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“I was just in shock; I couldn’t really feel any part of my body,” Lauren Betts told CBS Sports after winning the Honda Cup (Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year) on Monday.
“I was just sitting on that bench like, ‘Oh, my gosh. This is unbelievable.’ The most full-circle moment was my sister coming and sitting next to me. She’s in tears, I’m in tears, and just like understanding the reality of the situation, like I’m playing in the national championship with my little sister.”
“We’ve been talking about this since we were a little, making our dream come true, and just to do that with that special group. I love those girls. Those are my sisters for forever. So I’m just so grateful.”
Lauren Betts won the prestigious honor on the 50th anniversary of the Collegiate Women’s Sports Awards presented by Honda, and joined Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, who won the award twice during her collegiate career in 2023 and 2024.
Betts qualified as one of the finalists for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year honors after winning the Honda Sport Award for Basketball, succeeding Paige Bueckers, who won the award in 2025. However, unlike Bueckers, Lauren Betts outshone other finalists to join her fellow UCLA greats in that exclusive club.
UCLA legends like Jackie Joyner (track & field), Lisa Fernandez (softball), Natasha Watley (softball) and Rachel Garcia (softball) also won the Honda Cup. However, the only other basketball player to win the prestigious award ahead of Betts is Ann Meyers, who won it almost five decades ago in 1978.
“I feel like by far this is the biggest award I’ve ever received. The legacy that this award leaves, the women that have come across, the sisterhood that they’ve left, I just feel like it’s an honor…” Betts said on the stage after receiving the award.
To lead a team to their first-ever championship right beside her sister Sienna Betts will forever be an unforgettable memory for Lauren Betts. Besides joining the elites of women’s basketball, she got to live a childhood dream in a way few can.