After being a strong leader for the Three Rivers women's basketball team for three years, Myia Yelder will be taking her talents out west as she signed with Utah State. Yelder was a huge part of the Lady Raider roster over one of the most successful stretches in program history.

"Their coach over there is exactly like my high school coach," Yelder said. "I asked her some questions and she gave me the answers I was looking for. It felt very comfortable and she didn't pressure me at all."

Utah State coach Kayla Ard was a junior college product herself playing for Chipola (Florida) and coached at Pensacola State.

Yelder will be making the leap to NCAA Division I as Utah State plays in the Mountain West Conference. The Aggies went 11-19 last season.

"I got to go out to dinner with a couple of the girls there and they're really cool," Yelder said.

While taking advantage of an extra season due to COVID, Yelder has amassed quite a career at Three Rivers. On top of leading the Raiders to two NJCAA National Tournament appearances, Yelder is the program leader in career steals with 217 and free throw attempts with 422 and she's second in points (1,175), assists (346) and free throws made (304).

She averaged double figures per game in every season as a Raider with a career PPG of 13.8 in 85 games. Last season, the 5-foot-8 point guard from Conway, Arkansas was the team leader in scoring averaging 17 points per contest.

After the 2021-22 season was over, Yelder was named the Region XVI Player of the Year and was a first team NJCAA All-American. She was also a third team All-American in 2020-21, making her the third player in Three Rivers women's basketball history to be named an All-American twice.

In the classroom, Yelder said that Utah State checked all the boxes for her education.

"Utah State is a very good school academically," she said. "I'm majoring in Health Sciences right now, so I'll be continuing along that route when I get there."

Robert Augsdorfer - Daily American Republic