In front of a packed crowd on the last day of The Nest, senior forward Katie Peneueta looked up at the championship banner that loomed large over the intimate arena, steeling her nerves before the tip-off of her final game.
Surrounded by family and flanked by her childhood friend and fellow graduating senior forward Jaydia Martin, Peneueta prepared to put the final touches on one of the most successful careers in Sacramento State women’s basketball history.
After being a part of the first March Madness run in school history and reaching the Final Four with NC State, she returned home to lead the Hornets again, with little left to prove.
Despite growing up in an athletic household with two brothers and both parents playing sports at a college level, Peneueta wasn’t drawn to basketball to begin with.
“Initially, I didn’t want to get into basketball,” Peneueta said. “I thought it was a boy sport. But when my mom saw how tall I was getting, she pushed me to go to a practice, and I fell in love.”
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Tanya Martin, the mother and coach of Peneueta’s friend and Sac State teammate Martin, took Peneueta under her wing from a very early age.
“I would give almost all of the recognition for my development to Tanya,” Peneueta said. “She was truly the best coach that I’ve ever had in my life. She has such a high basketball IQ, as well as a vast knowledge of basketball and how to teach it. She taught me a lot of what I know and how to be a great player.”
Peneueta also credits Tanya Martin for unlocking her inside/out style of play, challenging her to work on her guard skills and outside shooting as opposed to stashing her in the paint due to her size.
After playing for Heritage High School in Washington and Tanya Martin’s AAU team, Vancouver Elite, Peneuta initially committed to the Air Force Academy in October of 2020 before medical complications forced her to change plans.
Huge congratulations to one of our very own, Katie Peneueta on her Hall of Fame Induction at Heritage High School! We’re incredibly proud of you and all your amazing achievements #StingersUp pic.twitter.com/H4TWv3qGhL
— Sac State WBB (@SacStateWBB) January 4, 2025
“They had reached back out to me and let me know that I would not be able to attend,” Peneueta said. “I have migraines, so I wouldn’t be able to get through boot camp.”
With a month to go before training camps opened, Peneueta found herself without a team until Mark Campbell, Sac State’s former head coach, gave her a call.
“When I got the call from Mark Campbell that he and the previous Oregon staff were interested in me at Sac State, it was an honor,” Peneueta said. “It felt very humbling to know that people of that caliber were interested in me.”
Her phone call with Campbell sealed her late commitment to join the Hornets for the 2021-22 season, and his faith in her ability was evident early on. After playing 15 minutes and scoring nine points in the season opener against Montana, she was promoted to the starting lineup and never left.
In her first start, Peneueta nailed five threes against Montana State, setting the tone for what would be a record-breaking freshman year. She shattered the previous program high-mark for single season 3-point percentage, finding nylon on 46.3% of her attempts.
After a 14-16 record in Campbell’s first season, the highest win total since 2016, the Hornets overhauled the roster. With most of the roster leaving via the transfer portal, just Peneueta and junior center Isnelle Natabou remained for her second season. .
“The turnover is difficult,” Peneueta said. “It’s hard to put a team together where all the pieces fit, the chemistry is there, all the talent levels match up and the skill is cohesive….luckily, sophomore year, that’s exactly what we got.”
Peneueta said she knew that she and her teammates were on the cusp of something special early in her sophomore year.
Sacramento State opened its 2022-2023 season with a clash against Big West powerhouse UC Irvine, leading the Anteaters by as much as 20 at one point before the lead slipped late. Penueta drilled four 3-pointers and recorded two blocks as a starter, playing nearly the entire game.
“We saw the potential,” Peneueta said. “That was the first game of the season. We saw that we had room to grow, but we knew then that we were capable of going to the tournament.”
After the loss against UC Irvine, the Hornets rattled off six straight non-conference wins to start the season hot, with Peneueta scoring 45 points across the final three games of non-conference play.
“Everything was kind of going right for us that year,” Peneueta said. “I think anybody outside of the program, and especially inside of the program, could say that from the start of that year, we knew that we were going to be a great team.”
Peneueta continued her lights-out shooting in year two, coming up just shy of her previous 3-point percentage record with 45.5% of her threes falling. She also improved significantly as a defender, leading the Big Sky Conference in blocks per game.
The Hornets rolled through the season, finishing the year on a 6-game winning streak. They won 25 games in Campbell’s second year, the highest win total in program history. Their 13-5 record in the Big Sky also secured their first regular-season championship, sharing the honors with Northern Arizona and Montana State.
RELATED: Sac State women’s basketball takes over Big Sky, wins championship
“When we entered the tournament, I knew that we were going to win,” Peneueta said about the Big Sky tournament. “There was no way we were letting anybody beat us. We had that mentality.”
Sac State steamrolled Idaho and Portland State on their path to a date with Northern Arizona in the Big Sky championship. Peneueta drilled seven threes and averaged 9.3 points in the playoffs, securing the program’s first appearance in March Madness.
“That start of the championship game was just ridiculous,” Peneueta said. “We made our first eight shots. I knew early on that it was over.”
The red-hot Hornets were going dancing against UCLA in the NCAA’s first round, Sac State’s lone appearance for both men’s and women’s basketball.
“It was always a dream of mine to be in March Madness one day,” Peneueta said. “Basketball was a very prominent thing in my family; everybody always watched March Madness. The opportunity and ability to make it there was a blessing.”
Sac State struggled out of the gate against a stronger UCLA side, ultimately falling, 67-45, and their Cinderella run ended early.
Just days after the loss, TCU named Campbell as their new coach, poaching the play-caller to lead their star-studded women’s squad in the Big 12.
RELATED: BREAKING: Hornet women’s basketball head coach accepts TCU coaching job
With the program in flux and the coach that courted her heading to Texas, Peneueta entered her name into the transfer portal.
“When I had put my name in the portal, I was very confident,” Peneueta said. “I’m typically not that confident of a person, but we had just come off a championship, and I was one of the top shooters in the country. I was very confident that I would end up somewhere that I was happy.”
Her confidence was justified, and NC State had taken notice of her elite tools. The Wolfpack, an ACC powerhouse, have reached the March Madness tournament in eight of the last nine years under Wes Moore.
She committed and joined a stacked roster that made a run to the Final Four, but injuries and inconsistent play time left her re-entering the portal after just one year in North Carolina.
Caught up with Vancouver native and Heritage High alum Katie Peneueta after she and NC State advanced to the Final Four!
Me: When you decided to transfer here last year, could you have ever imagined a moment like this?
Katie: Absolutely not. I knew the possibility of coming to… pic.twitter.com/XBUoWpuJbs
— Brenna Greene (@BrennaGreene_) March 31, 2024
Her friend Martin, who had been playing at Eastern Washington for the last three years, had also entered the portal, and a unique opportunity presented itself.
“I needed something new,” Martin said. “We had discussed playing together at some point, and after hearing that (Katie) was heading back to Sac State, I knew that was something I’d want to do.”
The two reunited as college veterans and leaders of second-year head coach Aaron Kallhoff’s squad in 2024. Peneueta reunited with redshirt junior guard Benthe Versteeg, one of two remaining players from the championship team, to form a formidable trio for Peneueta and Martin’s “last dance.”
“It’s awesome to play with her,” Versteeg said. “She’s a leader. She’s so accomplished. She won in high school, the [Big Sky] championship and got to experience winning with a big program. She was able to teach us and apply all the things she’s learned over the years.”
Sac State went up and down in Peneueta’s final season, dealing with several major absences and injuries.
The Hornets exited non-conference play with a 7-6 record, taking down UC San Diego and San Jose State as the Big Sky season approached. Peneueta dropped 20 points against Wagner during this stretch, nailing five threes.
Sac State followed up the hot start and an emphatic overtime win over Portland State with a 2-7 slide to drop them in the standings. They managed big wins over Idaho and Weber State and an underdog win over the previously undefeated, eventual champion, Montana State.
Peneueta got into a groove after the Idaho game, scoring over 13 points in four of the following six games, capped by 19 in the away win over Montana State.
RELATED: No bricks at The Brick: Sac State topples Montana State in a thriller
As the eight seed, the Hornets were matched up with Martin’s former team, Eastern Washington, and pulled out a late victory. Peneueta had a quiet night offensively but swatted a potential game-tying layup attempt into the second row.
The Hornets fell to the high-octane Northern Arizona offense in the following game, 69-65, despite a two-way performance from Peneueta in which she hit a pair of threes and blocked four shots.
Peneueta entered the history books for Sac State even further, becoming just the sixth player in program history to record 100 blocks in her career. As she graduates, she boasts both of the best shooting seasons in program history, and her name dots the archives for 3-point and blocking accolades.
Katie Peneueta:
1x Big Sky Champ (Sac State, 2023)
1x WBB Final Four appearance
Sac State/Big Sky 3pt% all-time leader
T-24th in NCAA 3pt% all-time
6th most blocks in Sac State history pic.twitter.com/pPYM55NSFF
— Jack (@JackDannKF) March 8, 2025
However, the legacy she’s proudest of is the Big Sky Championship and March Madness appearance.
“It’s cemented in the gym,” Peneueta said. “It was special to be a part of that historical moment. I just want to be a player that future players at Sac State can look back on and think that she had a successful career here.”
With her college career coming to an end, Peneueta has set her sights on continuing her professional career overseas, but she said Sacramento will always be close to her heart.
“The people at Sac State are amazing,” Peneueta said. “I think the school’s culture is rooted in diversity, and I like that a lot; it’s just so welcoming. I’ve always felt very loved and open and welcome here.”
