Her father was a running back for Stanford's football team while her brother John was a guard for Stanford's basketball team and quarterback for the Cardinal in the mid-1980s, and later was her basketball coach at Menlo School.
At Menlo, Kate led the team to three consecutive California Interscholastic Federation Division V state basketball championships from 1989 to 1991.
Stanford never recruited her, so Paye attended its women's basketball team training camp as a walk-on and tried out.
She later joined the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 2000, and played for the Minnesota Lynx for two seasons.
After she was waived by Lynx in May 2002, she signed a free agent contract with the Seattle Storm and played for them in the 2002 season.