After leading the Illinois Wesleyan women's basketball team to the NCAA Division III national championship, Olivia Lett is taking her considerable talents to play professional basketball in Spain for the upcoming season.

Lett will be playing for the Universitario de Ferrol basketball team with training camp beginning September 15 and the season of approximately 26 games beginning October 20. Ferrol's league is the second highest in Spain.

Ferrol has a population of 80,000 and is located on the Atlantic coast in northwestern Spain.

Lett was the D3hoops.com "Player of the Year" and first team All-American for the 2012 national champions. She averaged 21.8 points and 6.8 rebounds per game for the 28-5 Titans.

She set IWU single-season records for points (719), field goals (251), free throws (167) and blocks (37) and was the Titans' leading scorer in 29 of 33 games.
In her career she finished No. 5 all-time in scoring with 1,354 points, No. 25 with 429 rebounds and tied at No. 11 with 240 assists.
She is No. 7 in both field goals (474) and free throws (271) and her free throw percentage of .829 is second best in an IWU career. She also ranks No. 10 with 135 career 3-pointers.

“I signed with Carlos Ayesa, the agent that worked with (former IWU standout) Bryan Crabtree during his European career,” Lett said. “Bryan was able to give me a lot of insight early in the process, so I figured if he trusted Carlos then I could too. Once I signed with Carlos he pretty much did all the work and I just waited.”

But Lett admits that the wait from March to August was a long one. “When you're a little kid shooting in the driveway, you dream about being a professional athlete, so it's exciting to think I'll be living that dream,” said Lett. “Someone told me to 'dream with your eyes open', I guess that's what I'm trying to do at this point in my life. Playing professionally is really a testament to all the support and help that I've had along the way from my friends, teammates, and family.”

Carrie Snikkers, a three-time All-American center at Hope College, played on a one-year contract with the Universitario de Ferrol team last year, but Lett is unaware if Snikkers will be on the team again this winter.

Lett is the second women's basketball player from Illinois Wesleyan to play professionally – Lila Naffziger Wagner played a season in the early 1990s with the Illinois Knights, Quincy's entry in the short-lived Women's Basketball Association. She also had tryouts with the Cleveland Rockers, Detroit Shock and Orlando Miracle of the WNBA.

Universitario de Ferrol Website   |   Universitario de Ferrol Website (in Spanish)

League Website (in Spanish)   |    Website for videos during season