Kelsey Rees <\/a>– who is also in her rookie WNBL season after returning from college \u2013 will get to experience in Bendigo. <\/p>\n\u201cIt’s a great apprenticeship from their perspective to come in and learn from two of the most experienced fours and fives in the league,\u201d Kereama said. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Tolo and Griffin] are two people who’ve had nothing but success throughout their entire careers in the sport.\u201d <\/p>\n
In her WNBL debut, Pollerd played 13 strong minutes against Townsville on the weekend and her ability to defend was on full display, highlighted by a block on a driving Lucy Olsen in the paint. <\/p>\n
It was there for everyone to see that Pollerd will have an immediate impact.<\/p>\n
The way Pollerd\u2019s game developed while at Santa Clara was exceptional – from her versatility on offence to the way she can defend and influence defensive possessions blossomed and she hopes to continue that development in Bendigo. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom when I look back at my freshman year [at Washington] and then my sophomore year at Santa Clara to my senior year, there were just so many elements of building on my game and I definitely found a home at Santa Clara,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that it’s going to continue here at Bendigo. The coaches here, there\u2019s just such great development opportunities and I can see myself going on the same path here.\u201d <\/p>\n
Despite being on the other side of the world for the past four years, Pollerd was surrounded by Australians at Santa Clara which definitely made the transition easier. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was such a special part of Santa Clara,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was always a little bit of home at Santa Clara, my junior year there were five of us, my senior year there were three of us, and most of them were from Melbourne. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy accent never left because I\u2019d go to training and had people that spoke the same as me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Across her college career, Pollerd\u2019s points, rebounds and assists per game grew with each passing season. She also shot a healthy 37.2% from deep and as Bendigo looks to defend their championship, Pollerd\u2019s shooting ability could provide a major boost. <\/p>\n
\u201cBendigo is known as a really good three-point shooting team, so I look forward to being able to add to that,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just great because I come to training and everyone is shooting the lights out, so it really pushes me to be better.\u201d <\/p>\n
Having challenged the championship favourite Townsville Fire to the brink in their season-opening game<\/a>, there\u2019s little doubt Bendigo remain a very real threat in season 2025-26, and with Pollerd in the wings, the Spirit possess a major threat both now and into the future.<\/p>\nAbout the Author<\/p>\n
Hayley Wildes is passionate about all things Australian women\u2019s basketball and loves to highlight the stories of players from all levels and competitions across the globe. From our own backyard in the WNBL, to the WNBA and the Opals, and everything in between, Hayley has you covered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"College standout Olivia Pollerd finds herself in the perfect situation in her rookie WNBL season The sharpshooting Olivia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-242795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/68c0c9f28098cea73e33ffd0_GettyImages-2191529860.jpg\")
Santa Clara Broncos forward Olivia Pollerd (5) shoots the ball against Southern California Trojans guard JuJu Watkins (12) during an NCAA women’s college basketball game on November 25, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. Photo: Kirby Lee\/Getty Images<\/p>\n