Former LSU center Kate Koval is officially in the transfer portal and will be immediately eligible to compete after being granted a waiver, a source confirmed to The Athletic. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak publicly about the situation.
Per NCAA rules, waivers to transfer outside of sport-specific transfer windows are granted only in an "exigent event outside the student-athlete's control unrelated to athletics opportunities or participation at their current institution that demands the student-athlete's immediate departure from the institution."
Koval, who was born and raised in Ukraine, recently said in an Instagram post that she was departing from LSU due to the Tigers' signing of Russian center Anna Minaeva, who had played for a professional team in Moscow. In late August, LSU had announced that Koval was leaving the program for "personal reasons."
"For me, this war is not distant or abstract," Koval wrote in her social media post. "People close to me have been killed and wounded in Russian attacks, and places where I grew up and first began playing basketball have been destroyed by missile strikes."
Koval's father serves in the Ukrainian military, which has been at war since Russia's 2022 invasion.

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