West Virginia University women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit has announced the signing of Sarah Bates to a grant-in-aid for the 2022-23 academic year.

A 5-foot-9 guard from Fresno, California, Bates spent the last three seasons at Georgia Tech, where she helped lead the Yellow Jackets to a 58-31 record, including two NCAA Tournament Appearances and a Sweet 16 berth in 2020-21. Bates began her collegiate career in 2017-18, when she played for UC Santa Barbara. After one season with UCSB, she transferred to Kansas State in 2018-19, where she redshirted due to NCAA transfer rules. Bates will have one season of eligibility remaining.

In her four seasons of action, Bates has played in 88 games, with 44 starts, and has scored 585 points. Additionally, she has 129 assists and 143 rebounds in her career.

“We are absolutely elated to have Sarah join our Mountaineer family,” Plitzuweit said. “She is a very energetic and enthusiastic young lady and is someone who will bring great experience to our program! Sarah has a great skillset to go along with a high basketball IQ, and she is also very comfortable shooting it from the arc. We can’t wait for Sarah and her family join us in Morgantown!”

Last season, Bates played in 31 games for Georgia Tech, with eight starts, and averaged 23.2 minutes per game. Her 5.6 points per game were the sixth-best mark on the team, while she led GT in 3-pointers made, with 52 on the year. Additionally, Bates shot 31.9% (52-of-163) from behind the arc last season and 32.6% (58-of-178) overall. She finished with 10 or more points in a game five times in 2021-22, including a season-best 17 points against Clemson on Feb. 13. Bates sank multiple 3’s in 13 games for the Yellow Jackets last year, including a season-best five 3-pointers on three occasions.

In 2020-21, Bates played in and started the first 11 games of the season before being sidelined with an injury. During that stretch, she averaged 6.9 points per game, scoring in double figures twice, and shot 34.8% (24-of-69) from 3-point range. Additionally, Bates dished out multiple assists in three of those 11 contests.

In her first season with Georgia Tech in 2019-20, Bates played in 17 games and averaged 4.8 minutes per contest. Her best game during her redshirt sophomore season came on Dec. 15, 2019, against ETSU, when she knocked down a pair of 3’s to finish the contest with six points.

While at UC Santa Barbara in 2017-18, Bates played in 29 games, with 25 starts, for the Gauchos. She tallied 317 points during her first season of college basketball, while averaging 10.9 points per game, and ranked 14th in the Big West Conference in scoring. She also made a team-best 61 3-pointers that year, which ranked No. 4 in the Big West and was tied for No. 21 nationally amongst freshmen. Bates shot 41.2% (61-of-148) from 3-point range in 2017-18, which ranked second on the team and fifth in the conference. She also shot 42.6% (100-of-235) from the field and 70.9% (56-of-79) from the free-throw line during her freshman campaign.

Additionally, Bates finished her first season with 16 double-figure scoring games, including four 20-point performances, while also tallying 82 assists, 69 rebounds and 17 steals.

The daughter of Al and Jodi Bates, Sarah was a four-year varsity letter winner for coach Craig Campbell at Clovis West High School in Fresno. During her high-school career, she earned All-TRAC honors in each of her four years and was a three-time All-CIF selection. She also was named to the All-State team during her senior campaign, in which she led the Golden Eagles to a 34-2 record and the CIF Open Division State Championship. Following her time at Clovis West, she ranked third in school history in scoring and fourth all-time in assists.