Just one month after recording the first triple-double at Kansas State in 15 years, and just five days after tying the school record with 13 assists in a game, the senior point guard became the first Wildcat to record 1,500 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists and 50 blocks in a career in a 62-47 win against Arizona on Thursday at Bramlage Coliseum.
The 6-foot-2, Sundell reached 500 rebounds when she grabbed a defensive board late in the first quarter and then scored her 1,501st point when she swung around Jada Williams inside the paint for a layup to give No. 11 K-State a 40-27 lead with 8 minutes, 51 seconds left in the third quarter.
“I knew I was close,” Sundell said. “I heard it over the announcement.”
Sundell might have been a little bit shy talking about herself after the game, but it was her aggressive passion on the floor that helped fuel K-State to its 13th consecutive win and a 18-1 overall record, including a 6-0 mark in the Big 12 Conference.
“I really like her game,” Arizona head coach Adia Barnes said. “She’s solid. She doesn’t do anything outside of herself. She runs the team really well. She has a nice pull up jumper. That hurt us. She has size. She can back you down and she really gets to her sweet spot really well. It’s not that she’s super-fast, but she’s smart and she’s big. I love that size in point guards.”
Sundell finished her night with a team-high 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting to go along with four rebounds, eight assists, one steal and one block in 39 minutes.
“Scratch the basketball part and it’s just how she is as a person,” said senior Temira Poindexter, who had 14 points on 4-for-8 shooting from beyond the arc. “That makes us all better and makes us all want to play hard. She’s just a great leader. She sees things that I sometimes don’t. You have to be ready. She’s looking always.”
Sundell has 1,507 points (14th in K-State history), 503 rebounds, 694 assists (second) and 92 blocks (most ever by a K-State guard). She ranks third in the nation among active Division I players for career assists, currently leads the nation with 7.2 assists per game in 2024-25, and she continues to chase Shalee Lehning’s school record of 800 assists between 2005-09.
“She’s one of the better all-around players in the country,” K-State head coach Jeff Mittie said. “There are just so many things she can do. She just did Serena things tonight, you know. Just a little bit of everything.”
Sundell, a 2023-24 All-Big 12 First Team selection, entered this season on the 2024-25 Preseason All-Big 12 First Team. The native of Maryville, Missouri, is also on the Nasmith Trophy Watch List and on the Lieberman Award Watch List.
“Serena is just such a hard worker,” said Nancy Lieberman, member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The Nancy Lieberman Award is given annually to the nation’s top collegiate point guard in women’s Division I basketball.
“She’s tough and has every facet of the game,” Lieberman said. “She easily can have a triple-double because she’s difficult to guard. She’s big, tall, she can be a guard, and really, she can be anything. She’s just a basketball player. She really fills up a stat sheet. Throughout her career, I’ve loved that about her. You have to have somebody like her on your basketball team.”
It would be difficult for Mittie to picture the team without her.
“One of the things I always have a great appreciation for with Serena is she’s a winner,” he said, responding to her feat of 1,500 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists and 50 blocks. “When you have numbers like that, there are moments in games where you just have to do whatever it takes to win, and I think it leads to those balanced numbers. There might be a night where you need to get 10 rebounds. It might be a night where we’re asking you to guard the leading scorer of the other team at a position that maybe isn’t your No. 1 position, but that’s what the team needs. Serena has the ability to do all that.
“For her to be able to do that — and she’ll have a lot of opportunities to add to that — is a credit to her and her teammates. Obviously, the assist numbers, they have to make some shots for her to get those.
“This year, we’ve made more shots.
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