Coming to a new country, adapting to college and playing on the school’s basketball team is a lot to digest.
Especially when you become the starting point guard.
But Spaniard Olivia Alvarez has made a smooth transition and has played an important role in the University of Maine’s successful run to Friday’s 5 p.m. America East championship game against Vermont in Burlington.
And she credits her teammates with enabling her to adjust to her new environment.
“I’m from a small city so it’s really different,” said Alvarez. “There’s nothing near here. You have to go by car and I don’t have a license, so I have to depend on my teammates.”
Alvarez, who is from the Madrid suburb of Las Rozas, will go into the Vermont game averaging 3.7 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game while averaging 29.4 minutes of playing time per contest.
Alvarez said that she really likes being at UMaine and credited her teammates for helping in the transition in a new country.
“All of them, like the freshmen I live with, they make me feel like I’m home even though I’m far away,” Alvarez said. “I’m struggling a little bit with my English but they help me out a lot with it.”
She has started 22 of 31 games and has only turned the ball over 46 times.
In the Black Bears’ two America East playoff victories, she has averaged seven points, three assists and two rebounds.
The 5-foot-8 Alvarez said she was “really nervous” at the outset of the season and put pressure on herself.
But she soon realized that everyone had a role on the team and she just needed to execute her role as the point guard.
“We’re a team and we depend on everyone, so I shouldn’t be trying to do more than I should be,” she said. “I had to look at the game and know what to do in each moment.”
“Liv has had an amazing freshman year,” said UMaine coach Amy Vachon. “She plays a lot. She’s a very smart player who knows what should happen sometimes before anyone else does.”
Alvarez has always been a point guard.
“When I was little, I was the one who always had the ball and was dribbling and stuff,” said Alvarez, who was the point guard for the Baloncesto Torrelodones club team in Spain last season and averaged 12 points, 5.8 assists and 4.3 steals.
“My goal is to try to impact the game in as many ways possible,” Alvarez said.
She tries to make sure she gets the ball to open teammates and she also takes pride in doing whatever she can to help the team win.
“And she defends really, really well. She has had a great season,” said Vachon, a former standout point guard at UMaine who owns the school and conference record for career assists with 759.
UMaine fifth-year senior forward and America East Player of the Year Adrianna Smith called Alvarez a great player.
“She doesn’t always score a lot of points because sometimes she doesn’t shoot that much,” Smith said. “But what she brings to the team is more than what the numbers show.”
Smith added that Alvarez has been in a “lot of situations” which have benefitted her development.
“As a freshman, she has done an amazing job,” Smith said.
Alvarez has been happy with her season to date and pointed out that she’s “more confident” thanks to the experience she has gained throughout the campaign.
“She has taken on any role that has been thrown at her, which is huge,” said senior guard Sarah Talon. “You can’t ask for anything more from her.”
