Arizona women’s basketball’s 2027 class will have plenty of size. The Wildcats received a commitment from 6-foot-2 Canadian forward Ashley Vande Ven on Sunday. The four-star player joins 6-foot wing Brieana Brown and 6-foot-4 power forward Celsy Colombo in Becky Burke’s next recruiting class.
Vande Ven is ranked No. 82 in the ESPN SC Next 100. She has a scouting grade of 92 from the service.
Vande Ven is also rated as a four-star recruit by Prospects Nation. While she isn’t in their top 60 players,
she is part of the site’s Elite 150. She is not ranked or rated by 247sports or Rivals.
“Our Canadian hoopers from British Columbia have made the trip across the border to compete and train with EIE since the beginning,” Prospects Nation managing editor Chris Hansen wrote. “This year the duo of Puneet Deol of Surrey, B.C., and Ashley Vande Ven of Langley, B.C., made arguments they can compete with anyone in the lower 48 and are on their respective PN Watch Lists as well.“
Although Vande Ven is from British Columbia in the Western part of Canada, she will come to Tucson from Crestwood Prep, a sports-focused high school across the country in Toronto. Crestwood produced former UConn star and current WNBA player Aaliyah Edwards and current Duke All-American Toby Fournier.
FIBA lists Vande Ven as a dual national of Canada and the United States. Like Edwards and Fournier, she is part of the Canadian national program. She competed in the 2025 FIBA U16 Women’s AmeriCup and the 2026 FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup for Canada.
Vande Ven helped Canada walk away with a silver medal at the 2025 AmeriCup after falling to the USA in the final. She averaged 8.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.2 steals, and 0.3 blocks in 20.4 minutes per game across six contests. She connected on 68.3 percent of her shots including 40 percent of her 3-pointers on the way to being named to the all-tournament second team.
She and her team finished fourth at the 2026 World Cup, where they fell to Australia in the third-place match. She averaged 10.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.7 spg, and 1.0 bpg in 26.2 mpg. She led the team in both rebounds and blocked shots. She appeared in seven contests, hitting 42 percent of her shots including 35 percent of her 3-point shots.
Her highlights can be found on her HUDL profile and on YouTube.
Burke and her staff had a top 20 class in 2026, their first full recruiting season at Arizona. It is well on its way to being at least as good in 2027 with three four-star recruits in the fold.
