New London - Anete Jekabsone-Zogota wasn't sure if she was going to return to the Connecticut Sun this season.

Jekabsone-Zogota, a Latvian guard, struggled with homesickness and adjusting to the WNBA as a rookie in 2009.

"I didn't see if I could fit in this league," she said. "I didn't just want to come back and be a bad player.

"One month after the season finished, I felt much better about the team. Why not (come back?) I liked the team. I decided that I can do it and that I can play and I can show my good game here."

Jekabsone-Zogota arrived on Friday and will play in today's preseason game at the New York Liberty (10:30 a.m.), the Sun's final exhibition.

"She's a build-around person," coach Mike Thibault said. "I think she's one of the keys to our season because she's just such a dynamic offensive player."

Jekabsone-Zogota, 26, has impressive international credentials. She was the 2007 FIBA Europe Women's Player of the Year, runner-up the last two seasons (Connecticut teammate Sandrine Gruda was this season's winner) and averaged 15.8 points for Latvia at the 2008 Olympics.

Thibault recruited Jekabsone-Zogota because she was a skilled 3-point shooter who sees the whole floor. She's left-handed, too, making her a tough matchup.

Life in America, and the WNBA, was tougher than Jekabsone-Zogota ever imagined. The first eight games were a grind, and she had to be coaxed into not going home.

"My husband had to go home after one month," Jekabsone-Zogota said. "He said, 'I have to go.'

"I said, 'If you're leaving, then I'm leaving, too. Then I talked to (Thibault). He helped me, all of the other coaches helped me, and the team. I'm happy that I stayed."

Jekabsone-Zogota averaged 9.4 points for the season, but heated up in the final 17 games. She shot 41.5 percent and averaged 11.8 points in the second half of the year.

"When the season was over," Jekabsone-Zogota said, "I was like, 'Oh-hhhh, yes, I did it!' I was really proud of myself that I stayed."

Thibault said that Jekabsone-Zogota will start at small forward and play off-guard, too. She's smaller (5-foot-9) than the forwards she will face, but Thibault isn't worried.

"Nykesha Sales went through that, too," Thibault said, "and we were really successful playing that kind of a lineup. People have to guard her on the other end and chase her around, too. And the taller threes, how many screens do they want to chase her off of? It evens out.

"Phoenix didn't play a bunch of tall people last year and they won a championship. We have the ability to move her to the two and play bigger, also. … I think she's capable of being a 14-15 point a game scorer with three or four assists and rebounds. That's pretty good. It'll be good enough. I envision a team in which we have five or six players in double figures and nobody averages 20. A bunch between eight and 17, that's the picture I see."