Washington Mystics sign former Maryland guard Kristi Toliver

The Washington Mystics have signed former Maryland point guard Kristi Toliver, according to the Washington Post’s Gene Wang.

Toliver was drafted third overall by the Chicago Sky in 2009, but was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks the following season. Toliver spent the next seven seasons with the Sparks, where she is the franchise leader in free-throw and three-point percentage.

This past season, she averaged 13.2 points and 3.7 assists per game while playing a career-high 32.1 minutes per game, and the Sparks won their first WNBA title since 2002.

With the new deal, Toliver will be playing just 15 miles away from where she began her rise to stardom. She played at Maryland from 2005-09, and helped take the program to new heights, winning a National Championship her freshman year. In that game, Toliver hit a game-tying three-pointer with 6.1 seconds left to send the game to overtime, where the Terps would eventually beat ACC rival Duke for the program’s first national title.

Her 2,078 points rank fourth in program history, and she is also the school’s all-time leader in career assists and three-pointers by a wide margin. Toliver and Marissa Coleman are part of the winningest senior class in head coach Brenda Frese’s 15 years at Maryland, posting a 126-19 record in their four years in College Park.

After making the playoffs the previous three seasons, the Mystics finished 13-21 last year and missed the postseason. But the team appears in good position to get back, as they acquired superstar Elena Delle Donne from the Chicago Sky over the weekend.

The Mystics now have three of the four most prolific three-point shooters in the WNBA. Toliver, who ranked fourth in three-point field goal percentage last season, and Delle Donne, who ranked second, join Emma Meesseman, who led the league in the same category.