MORAGA, Calif. – Saint Mary's Women's Basketball is excited to announce the signings of Ruby Vlahov and Maia Jones for the 2023 season.
 
Vlahov and Jones will come to the Gaels from Perth, Australia and Nelson, New Zealand respectively, and both come from basketball families.
 
The 6-foot-2 Vlahov was a captain of the Western Australian State teams for the U16 and U20 age groups, and would have been on the U18 Team as well before COVID canceled it. She was also a member of the Australian U17 and U19 squads and attended multiple developmental and national performance camps with Basketball Australia.
 
She played part of her high-school career at Marist High School in Eugene, Ore. and was named to the Oregon 4A All-State team in 2018-19 before returning to Australia to finish high school, graduating in December of 2021. 
 
Vlahov was selected as a member of the NBA Academy Women's Program and was one of just seven Australians invited to attend the WNBA Academy Showcase in New Orleans in 2020. She also attended the NBA Basketball without Borders Camp in Canberra, Australia in 2022 and was selected to the All-Star 5 of the camp.
 
Ruby is the daughter of Andrew Vlahov, who is a four-time Olympian with the Australian Boomers, a former team captain, an Australian Basketball Hall of Famer, and played his collegiate career at Stanford University. 
 
She is currently a Development Player for the WNBL Perth Lynx, where she will train with their team this season. She played this past season for Perry Lakes Hawks in NBL1 East, and scored 24 points in her debut.
 
The 5-foot-10 Jones was a member of the U17 New Zealand Junior National team who competed at the 2022 World Championships in Hungary. The captain of the squad averaged just under 10 points per game, with a high of 18 points in their final classification game of the tournament vs. Egypt.  She hit five threes in a win over Mali in group play and had a double-double (12 points & 10 rebounds) in a win over Argentina in the round of 16.
 
Jones was a member of the U16 New Zealand Junior National team and competed at the 2022 Asia Cup in Jordan, where they finished fourth to qualify for the U17 World Cup. She averaged just under 14 ppg., along with three rebounds and three assists per game. 
 
The Waimea College product shot over 50% from downtown for the tournament, hitting an impressive 20 of 39 three pointers, including 5 of 6 from deep for 18 pts in the third-place game against Korea.
 
She was one of only three players from New Zealand selected to attend the NBA Basketball Without Borders Asia Camp in Canberra, Australia in the summer of 2022, where she was awarded the Patrick Baumann Sportsmanship Award.
 
Jones led her high school team (Waimea College) to a spot in the Secondary School Nationals, finishing ninth, and led the tournament in scoring, averaging 35.7 ppg. She won four-straight MVP awards for Waimea College Sport and was awarded the Glue Family Cup for greatest Achievement in Sport. She was also selected to attend the prestigious Steven Adams Invitational camp in 2021 and 2022.
 
Maia is the daughter of Phill and Kat Jones. Phill is a member of the New Zealand HOF, played with the NZ Tall Blacks for 14 years, and played overseas in Europe and in the NZNBL for the Nelson Giants. Kat is a former team captain as well, and has coached numerous teams in NZ, including in the newly formed NZWNBL for the Mainland Pouakai.