As training camp ends and preseason prepares to tip off, teams around the WNBA are finalizing their lineups and making much-dreaded cuts to bring the roster size down to 11 or 12 total players. For the Los Angeles Sparks, that's meant releasing both Anneli Maley and Alyssa Ustby.

The Sparks' decision to waive the players brings them down to 16 players to choose from before the season opener against the Golden State Valkyries.

Maley had one WNBA appearance before joining the Sparks, playing in only four games with the Chicago Sky in 2022. The Melbourne, Australia, native returned to her homeland to play basketball for the Perth Redbacks in the NBL1 West league, finishing the 2025 campaign with an incredible 29-point, 30-rebound, 10-assist triple-double outing.

The 6-foot-1 forward impressed the Sparks from across the ocean, and her All-NBL1 West First Team and All-WNBL Second Team honors prove exactly how much of a threat and asset Maley can be. Maley signed with L.A. in February.

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The Sparks brought Ustby in after she went undrafted in the 2025 WNBA Draft. The team made it a priority to offer her a one-year free-agent contract the day after the draft. Head coach Lynne Roberts even previously tried to recruit Ustby out of high school when she was still leading the team at Utah.

Ustby definitely played well enough at North Carolina to turn some heads, putting up 10.9 points, 9.5 boards, and a team-high 2.8 assists in her final year as a Tar Heel. She earned All-ACC First Team and ACC All-Defensive Team recognition while landing in North Carolina's history books as the leader in career rebounds. Ustby also stands alone as the program's only player ever to notch a single-game triple-double.

Despite having an interest in both players, the team needed to make a move, and it won't be the last heartbreaking cut before the 2025 season gets underway. The Sparks will have to part with four or five more talented ballers before facing the Valkyries on May 16.