Alberta Herrera has been a loyal Lynx fan from California for 14 years, ever since the team brought her favorite WNBA player, Rebekkah Brunson, to Minnesota.
The Sacramento native once cheered on Brunson’s former team, the Sacramento Monarchs, until that team disbanded in 2009. She now frequently flocks to Minneapolis to watch her adopted team play, because watching games from California doesn’t compare with the electricity of Target Center.
“It’s the difference between going to an Eagles concert and then just cranking it up in your car,” she said.
She was a Monarch season ticket holder for years while working as an auditor for the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Now, the 70-year-old dedicates part of her retirement savings to Lynx tickets and travel expenses, as she jumps at any opportunity to see them play. Such was the case when the Lynx made it into the playoffs.
Herrera was here in August for a week to see three home games. She couldn’t miss Maya Moore’s jersey retirement ceremony at the Lynx-Indiana Fever game on Aug. 24.
“When we were walking away from that last game in August, we were chatting and going, ‘Yeah, who’s it going to be in the finals? In the semi-finals?’ And you know what? I kind of picked the Lynx and New York. That’d be a really good matchup.”
When her prediction turned out to be true, she booked a last-minute flight to Minneapolis in October to come back for two more home games.
“Nobody expected they would get this far,” she said. “But you don’t make expectations, you just take the things that are put in your road and go with it. And I think that’s one of the things that makes the Lynx work so well.”
