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July 14 (UPI) -- WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner's former teammate and the director of her team in Russia testified to her character Thursday during a court hearing in Moscow. Evgeniya Belyakova, the captain of team UMMC Ekaterinburg, told the court the team misses Griner and "her energy."
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"Brittney has always been a good teammate, which is why my role here is to support her and be there for her," said Belyakova, who was also the one-time captain of the Russian national team.
Team director Maksim Ryabkov said Griner played a "big role" in the team and Russian women's basketball in general, according to CNN.
The trial is expected to resume Friday morning, The New York Times reported.
Thursday was Griner's first court appearance after her surprise decision to plead guilty to drug charges last week.
Russian authorities took the Phoenix Mercury star and two-time Olympic gold medalist into custody in February after they said they found vaping cartridges in her luggage containing less than a gram of hashish oil, which is against the law in Russia.
After she was detained for weeks and her family appealed to U.S. President Joe Biden to work to secure her release, Griner pleaded guilty to the charges last week, hoping for leniency from the court.
Griner could face as many as 10 years in prison on the charges.
Some U.S. officials have argued that Russia is using the women's basketball star, who played in Russia during the WNBA off-season, as a political pawn.
In May, the U.S. State Department reclassified Griner's case as a "wrongful detention" and the White House has not yet said whether it's considering a possible prisoner exchange to secure her release.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow would not be pressured into making a deal.
"We urge the U.S. authorities not to exploit this sensitive matter affecting the fates of certain individuals, and we advise them to abandon futile attempts to pressure us," Zakharova said according to The Washington Post.
