In two years at Colorado, Aaronette Vonleh developed into one of the best centers in the country.
She will play her final season of college basketball elsewhere, however.
On Monday, the 6-foot-3 Vonleh put her name into the transfer portal, leaving the Buffaloes after helping them to two consecutive Sweet 16 appearances.
Vonleh earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors this past season, averaging a team-best 14.0 points per game. She also posted 5.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game while hitting 54.9% of her field goal attempts.
Vonleh kicked off this past season with a dominant 24-point, six-rebound performance in helping the Buffs upset defending champion and then-No. 1 LSU.
During the NCAA Tournament this season, Vonleh had a dominant run. She had a double-double (18 points, 10 rebounds) in an opening round win against Drake, while shutting down Bulldogs center Anna Miller.
She then had a career-high seven steals, as well as nine points and eight rebounds in going toe-to-toe with All-American Ayoka Lee in a second-round win against Kansas State. In CU’s Sweet 16 loss to Iowa, Vonleh went 6-of-9 from the floor and posted 13 points and five rebounds.
In 2022-23, Vonleh was voted as the Pac-12’s co-most improved player after she averaged 12.2 points and 4.5 rebounds. Her field goal percentage of .585 ranks as the eighth-best for a single-season in CU history.
Vonleh’s career field goal percentage at CU (.566) ranks third in program history and her career scoring average (13.1) ranks 14th.
A native of West Linn, Ore., Vonleh played her freshman year at Arizona, posting 4.1 points and 1.6 rebounds per game, but averaging just seven minutes and rarely getting off the bench after the Wildcats got into Pac-12 play.
Vonleh is the Buffs’ sixth scholarship player to enter the transfer portal since the season came to a close on March 30. Sophomore Brianna McLeod and freshmen Jadyn Atchison, Mikayla Johnson, Ruthie Loomis-Goltl and Lele Tanuvasa have also entered the portal, along with walk-on Shelomi Sanders.
Loomis-Goltl announced Monday that she is transferring to Idaho.
The Buffs are also losing five players to graduation: Jaylyn Sherrod, Quay Miller, Maddie Nolan, Charlotte Whittaker and walk-on Sophie Gerber.
Of the 17 players on the roster this year, only four are set to return: guards Frida Formann, Sara-Rose Smith and Kindyll Wetta, who were all key rotational players, and guard Kennedy Sanders, a true freshman who redshirted. Formann will be the only returning starter.
Guard Tameiya Sadler could also return, but has not yet decided whether to come back for a bonus season granted to all players from the 2020-21 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Buffs have three incoming freshmen and currently have seven open scholarships (eight if Sadler doesn’t return).