Skye Belker ’27 Aims to Apply Summer Experience in Germany as a Backcourt Leader for Princeton

This summer, Skye Belker ’27 lived out her dream of playing basketball for Germany when she competed with the under-22 national team at the World University Games. But it might never have happened if Princeton associate head coach Lauren Gosselin hadn’t checked her junk folder.

Representing Germany had long been a goal for Belker. Her father, Harald, was born there before coming to the U.S. on a tennis scholarship, and she grew up speaking German with him.

Belker, a guard for the Tigers, got on the national team’s radar through a Princeton connection. One of the athletic fellows for the women’s basketball team, associate professor of molecular biology Sabine Petry, had played in Germany, and she reached out to some contacts overseas after hearing about Belker’s dream. Those contacts led to Sidney Parsons — who was then an assistant coach for Germany and is now the director of player development for the Golden State Valkyries — emailing Gosselin.

Luckily, Gosselin decided to clean out her junk folder one day and found Parsons’ email sitting there. She sent film of Belker to the Germany staff, and by early 2025, Belker was set to play in the summer.

As a bonus, Germany hosted the World University Games, which meant some of Belker’s extended family could see her play live for the first time. She spent six weeks there, including some vacation time, two weeks of preparation with the team, and eight days of competition.

“It was a super exciting experience,” Belker said. “[It was] my first time going to Germany for that long, being immersed in the culture, and then also playing basketball [while speaking] German, which is super cool.”

Germany’s first game of the tournament was a near-upset of the United States, which was represented by Texas Tech in women’s basketball (Baylor played as the U.S. men’s team). The hosts had 16 steals and forced 25 U.S. turnovers. They led by three points after three quarters and lost by just six. Belker had a team-high 15 points, three rebounds, and two steals in 20 minutes off the bench.

“Putting on the jersey was super cool, having it say Deutschland,” Belker said. “And I think the jerseys in and of themselves are pretty tough. … I was kind of just trying to take it in and learn new things about basketball that I could bring back to college.”

Though Germany also lost its next game to Poland, it won its last four to finish ninth out of 16 teams. Overall, Belker averaged 5.8 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 13.8 minutes per game. She said she was “really happy” with her performance and thought she got better playing internationally, which is generally more physical on both ends. She also learned from facing some older players, as the competition allowed players as old as 25.

“Skye had a really great summer,” Princeton head coach Carla Berube said in the preseason. “[She’s] reading the defense really well [and finding a] way to just use her body and use her strength to absorb contact and still make plays.”

Those things will all help as Belker enters her third season as a starter for the Tigers, who are the preseason favorite to win the Ivy League. Though their streak of six straight regular-season titles ended last year, they’ve reloaded with arguably the league’s best backcourt. Belker, Ashley Chea ’27, and Madison St. Rose ’26 each have all-Ivy accolades, and St. Rose is healthy again after tearing her ACL last November.

“That’s probably our strength right now,” Berube said of the backcourt. “We’ve got some great playmakers. … It's been fun watching them play together and then also compete against each other and make each other better.”

Last season, Princeton’s defense was its worst in five seasons under Berube based on points allowed per 100 possessions, but Berube and Belker are already seeing improvements in preseason. The Tigers aren’t as tall or deep in the post this year, but they’ll disrupt opponents with heavy ball pressure.

Belker will be a big part of that defense again this season, helping Princeton get back to its mantra of “Get Stops.” Or, as she might’ve told her German teammates this summer, “Stops Holen.”