[5] In her final season at Gonzaga, she led the Bulldogs to their first-ever Elite Eight appearance, and won the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award as the top NCAA Division I women's player no taller than 5'8" (1.73 m) and the prestigious Nancy Lieberman Award as the top player at her position in Division I women's basketball.

[9] She did not concentrate on basketball until high school: I grew up wanting to go to North Carolina because of Mia Hamm.

Her coach, Keith Hennig, a former player at Central Washington University who is 6 inches taller than Vandersloot, regularly played one-on-one against her either before or after the team's practice.

[9] A pivotal moment in her life came during the summer before her sophomore year, when she went with a friend to the Gonzaga University girls' basketball camp.

The Gonzaga women's basketball staff was equally enthusiastic about her, except for head coach Kelly Graves, who had little opportunity to see her during the camp.

Graves would finally get to see Vandersloot at length in her junior year, on the day before the 2006 Washington Class 4A state tournament.

After that season, Vandersloot was asked by many people if she would consider Washington or another Pac-10 school, but decided against it after a Pac-10 assistant told Hennig she was too small.

Vandersloot was also consensus first-team all-state, and was named the state's player of the year by the Seattle Times.

During that first season, Graves suggested that she call the school's greatest point guard in history for advice—Hall of Famer John Stockton.

Vandersloot would recall that it "took me a couple of weeks to build up,"[5] and when she finally called Stockton for the first time, she hoped that she would reach his voice mail so she wouldn't have to talk.

[5] As a freshman in 2007–08, she was the West Coast Conference newcomer of the year and named to the 10-member All-WCC first team after averaging 10.3 points, 5.7 assists, and 1.9 steals per game entering the WCC tournament, finishing in the top five in the WCC in the latter two categories while the Zags went 13–1 in conference play and earned the tournament's top seed.

[14] However, the Bulldogs lost in the WCC final to San Diego[15] and ultimately missed out on the NCAA Tournament, playing instead in the WNIT.

[21] As a junior in 2009–10, Vandersloot led Division I in assists, averaging 9.4 per game,[22] while leading the Zags to an unbeaten record in conference play.

2 seed (and 2011 champion) Texas A&M before losing in the Sweet Sixteen to the Xavier team they had knocked out the year before.

11 seed, but had the advantage of playing their first-round and potential second-round games at their home court of McCarthey Athletic Center.

[6] The win advanced them to the Sweet Sixteen for the second straight year, and to a regional tournament that would be held less than two miles (3 km) from the Gonzaga campus at Spokane Arena.

During the Bulldogs' next game, a 76–69 win over Louisville, Vandersloot broke the Division I women's record for assists in a season previously held by Suzie McConnell.

She finished with 29 points, 7 assists, and 7 steals as the Zags became the lowest-seeded team ever to reach a regional final in the women's tournament.

By her junior year, attendance had risen to 2,935, and rose again to 3,824 in her senior season, with the Zags selling out the McCarthey Athletic Center twice before the NCAA tournament.

[5] On February 11, 2023, Vandersloot had her number retired, becoming the first Gonzaga women's basketball player to receive the honor.

Her relatively small size had been a subject of concern, as was her defense—despite averaging 4.5 steals per game in the 2011 NCAA tournament and ending her Gonzaga career with 366.

[37] John Stockton gave Vandersloot high praise, stating, "I don't want to dramatize it too much but she's like Gretzky in hockey.

[40] She was also named as an Eastern Conference reserve for the 2011 WNBA All-Star Game,[2] and was one of the five members of the 2011 All-Rookie Team, gaining 10 of a possible 11 votes from the league's head coaches.

[42] On July 20, 2018, Vandersloot became the seventh player in league history to post a triple-double, she scored 13 points along with 10 rebounds and a career-high 15 assists in a 114–99 victory over the Dallas Wings.

The Sky finished the season as the sixth seed with a 16–16 record, but went on to a successful run in the playoffs, winning two single-elimination games and a semifinals series against the first-seeded Connecticut Sun to reach the Finals for the first time since 2014.

On September 16, 2024, it was announced that Vandersloot would appear and play in the inaugural season of Unrivaled, a new women's 3x3 basketball league founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.