SAN DIEGO – San Diego State women’s basketball head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson has announced the signings of three guards, Alayna Kraus (Southern Illinois), Eva DeChent (New Hampshire) and Nayli Padilla (New Mexico).
Kraus averaged 15.8 points last year and made the All-Missouri Valley Third Team last season, DeChent has averaged over 17.0 points per game the last two years while Padilla averaged 8.0 points per game and made over 50 three-pointers last year.
Kraus (Okawville, Ill.) started all 30 games for the Salukis last season while playing 34.0 minutes per game. In addition to leading the team in scoring, she averaged 2.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. She shot 88.1 percent from the free throw line, which was second in the MVC and 21st in the nation.
"Alayna will be a great addition to our program," Terry-Hutson said. "She is a driven and competitive gym rat that can score at all three levels.”
Kraus began last season with 12 straight double-digit points games and ended up scoring 20+ points more times (8) than she has scored less than 10 (5). Her best performance was her 30-point game against Illinois State on February 13, where she shot over 57% from both the field and beyond the arc.
Kraus was also named to the All-MVC Scholar Athlete Team after posting a perfect 4.0 GPA as a psychology major.
Kraus attended Oral Roberts as a freshman and helped the Golden Eagles go 24-9 and make the WBIT. She appeared in 15 games and averaged 3.3 points while shooting 38% from three.
She attended Okawville High School in Illinois and helped her school win back-to-back 1A state championships while winning tournament MVP honors both times. She scored 2,152 points in her high school career and was named a First Team-All State selection three times.
DeChent (Westchester N.Y.) is a two-time All-American East selection and has finished top two in the conference in scoring in each of the last two seasons. This past season, she averaged 18.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.9 steals while also finishing second in the conference in free throws (140-175, 80%). She scored in double-digits in 23 of her 30 games, topped 20 points 12 times and scored 30 or more on three occasions.
“Eva is a big guard who has incredible shot-making ability,” Terry-Hutson said. "She has a high basketball IQ and can score from anywhere on the floor.”
In her sophomore season, she was named the American East Newcomer of the Year after leading the conference in scoring, averaging 17.8 points per game to go with 4.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game. She scored 10+ points in 26 of her 30 games and topped 20 10 times.
DeChent played at Rhode Island as a freshman, appearing in 23 games and averaging 2.0 points in 7.7 minutes per game.
She attended Putnam Valley High School in New York where she left as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,267 points and won New York’s Class B Player of the Year as both a junior and senior. She helped her team win the Section One championship all four years and make the state championship game twice. As a senior she averaged 30.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 5.7 steals and 5.1 assists per game while as a junior she had averages of 23.8 points, 10.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 6.1 steals per game.
Padilla appeared in 57 games for the Lobos while making nine starts across two seasons. This past season as a sophomore, she averaged 8.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
“Nayli does a bit of everything,” Terry-Hutson said. "She is an efficient scorer who can stretch the floor but can also score at the rim.”
In the 2025-26 season, Padilla averaged 24 minutes per game and finished second on New Mexico in assists and three-pointers (52). She had 12 games in double-digits and had a career-high 19 points in the Lobos’ win over Cincinnati. Her season-high six rebounds came against the Aztecs.
As a freshman, she averaged 3.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 3.7 minutes per game.
A native of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands, Padilla played for Tenerife Central, CB Santa Cruz and Spar Gran Canaria and won three straight championships (2021-23). She was selected to represent Spain at the 2023 U18 Euro Championships in Turkey.
The trio of transfer guards will join seven returners, including four starters, and two incoming freshmen that will look to build off a historic season that saw SDSU win the Mountain West regular season championship and tie a school record with 27 wins.
The Aztecs have set a program record for attendance in each of the last three years and are currently accepting deposits for 2026-27 season tickets.