Pros vs. Joes No. 9: Mikayla Pivec pivots to comfortable spot playing in Spain
Pivec drives to the basket against IDK Euskroten (Courtesy Mikayla Pivec)
It has taken her awhile, but my favorite female athlete in Oregon State history is finally having a rewarding experience playing pro basketball.
Mikayla Pivec is the starting shooting guard for Cadi La Seu of the Spanish Women’s Pro League’s First Division. In 19 games, Pivec, 24, is averaging 10.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists while shooting .405 from the field and .359 from 3-point range for the team based in La Seu D’Urgell, a village of about 12,000 located in the Catalan Pyrenee Mountains.
“I’m enjoying it here,” Pivec tells me in a FaceTime conversation from her apartment in La Seu D’Urgell. “Being part of this team has been really positive. We have a nice camaraderie among the players. People come to practice to work hard. It’s a healthy environment.”
It’s a far cry from her first experience in Spain a year ago, playing for Club Deportivo Promete in the same league. Her coach spoke no English and would get frustrated when Pivec couldn’t understand what she was saying, she says. She lived alone and played sparingly. Mikayla stayed through Christmas and left the team.
“That was a really bad experience for me,” Pivec tells me.
It was part of a difficult couple of years for the 5-10 Lynnwood, Wash., native, who proved herself as one of the all-time greats of Oregon State women’s basketball during her four years in Corvallis (2017-20). Pivec, a two-time all-Pac-12 selection, finished her career first in rebounds, fourth in assists and eighth in scoring in Beaver history.
Drafted by the Atlanta Dream in the third round of the 2020 WNBA draft, Pivec was advised to opt out because the pandemic had placed the season in jeopardy. Perhaps it was a good thing, because she wasn’t healthy. In May 2020, an MRI showed a plantar plate tear in her left foot. She underwent stem-cell surgery in June and needed two months to recover. During recovery, she signed with Promete.
After that didn’t work out, Pivec returned to the U.S. and was invited to the training camp of the WNBA Minnesota Lynx as a free agent. But she suffered a left knee injury (partially torn meniscus) and underwent surgery in February. She recovered in time to participate in the camp, but was one of last two cuts.
“That was extremely difficult,” Pivec says. “Growing up, I’ve always wanted to play in the WNBA. To be that close was frustrating. I was cut 30 minutes before the deadline the last day.
“It shows the reality of how few (roster) spots where open. (The Lynx) had only 11 spots. If there were a 12th spot, I think I’d have had a really good shot. I just need to continue to work and if other opportunities come up, be ready for them.”
Pivec returned to her parents’ home in Washington that spring, took a part-time job doing administrative work for a virtual reality company and worked out twice a day. She then received the offer from Cadi, an organization recommended by ex-OSU star Sydney Wiese, who had played there in 2019-20.
In Seu D’Urgell, Pivec lives with teammates Jewell Tunstull and Paula Stramane. The Cadi coaches speak English. Mikayla is making less money than she did with Promete — she receives $3,000 per month plus housing — but it has been well worth it. She doesn’t have use of a car, so she walks to practice.
Mikayla (second from left) with (from left) Cadi Le Seu teammates Jewell Tunstull from Northeastern, Paula Stramane (a Latvian who played collegiately at Quinnipiac) and Claudia Lukocovicova from Slovakia. They are the four international players on the team and call themselves the “Fantastic Four Foreigners” (Courtesy Mikayla Pivec)
Cadi is 13-7 and stands in fourth place in the 16-team Spanish First Division with 10 games remaining. Eight teams make the playoffs, so Cadi stands in good shape.
“We’ve played well,” Pivec says. “The only teams ahead of us are ones that have WNBA, EuroCup or EuroLeague players on them.”
Pivec’s scoring production has been consistent, with a high of 18 points but under eight only three times.
“I’ve been pretty solid,” she says. “Before the December break, I was scoring more. I’d like to produce a little more, but I’m happy with where I am.”
Pivec missed time last month after a bout of COVID. Mikayla, vaccinated but without the booster shot, was in quarantine for nine days.
“Five of our players got the virus,” she says. “I was a little bit sick, a little congested and lethargic, and more tired than normal. But it was pretty minor.”
The good thing, though, is her injuries of the previous two years have healed.
“I’m super healthy, thankfully,” she says. “The body is feeling good. No issues there.”
Pivec took four years of Spanish in high school.
“That equates me to about a third-grade level,” she laughs.
How much Spanish has she learned in Spain?
“Poco,” she says. “For Christmas, my sister (Malia) got me a language learning app. I’ve been practicing a lot with my teammates, who speak a lot of Catalan, a little different than what I took at school. It’s a dialect from this region, similar to Spanish. I’m getting better. I can understand more than I speak.”
Cadi plays about one game a week. Though the team practices on most non-game days, it still leaves the players plenty of idle time. Pivec has enjoyed the food scene and also attending local festivals.
“I’m a big foodie,” she says. “Some of my teammates know how to cook Spanish omeletes. That’s one of my favorite foods here. I’ve learned how to make them. One teammate knows how to make a seafood rice dish that is really good.”
Pivec visited Portugal during one two-day break and made a two-hour flight from Barcelona to Paris to spend three days with ex-OSU teammate, Destiny Slocum, who is playing for Landerneau in France.
Wearing a red beret, Mikayla looks down at the Eiffel Tower during an off-week visit to France. Mikayla and former OSU teammate Destiny Slocum traveled to Paris together for three days (Courtesy Mikayla Pivec)
“We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa, the Louvre,” she says. “We had our fair share of crepes. It was good to reconnect with her there.”
Plenty of other former Beavers are playing in Europe. Wiese is in Italy, Ruth Hamblin in Greece, Kat Tudor in Germany. Marie Gulich is playing for Valencia in Spain’s First Division. Last week, Valencia beat visiting Cadi La Seu 75-50. Gulich is the No. 2 scorer (10.4) and top rebounder (6.1) on a Valencia team that is 19-4 and second in the league.
Pivec battles inside with IDK Euskroten opponent (Courtesy Mikayla Pivec)
“It was a beatdown,” says Pivec, who was 0 for 5 from the field and scored a season-low two points. “I didn’t play well. They’re a really good team. We didn’t have much time to talk. When they played us here (a 64-60 Cadi La Seu win), we met for coffee. I made her a carrot cake to bring back home.”
Pivec still hopes to make it in the WNBA.
“My ultimate goal is to get as good as possible to make that dream a reality,” she says. “If I don’t make it, then I’m not a failure. Playing overseas can still be a really good opportunity. But I’m pushing as much as possible to make (the WNBA) happen.”
If she is invited to participate in a WNBA team’s training camp, she’ll go. If not, she has a “backup plan” to spend some time in Corvallis. Pivec, an Academic All-American at Oregon State and Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the year in women’s basketball as a senior, has an Honors degree in biohealth sciences (graduating in three years with a 3.93 GPA) and a master’s in biochemistry and biophysics. She has interest in doing something in the medical field after basketball is over.
(Note: In February 2019, I attended a class with Mikayla at OSU. The following story resulted.)
https://pamplinmedia.com/pt/12-sports/419020-315946-dedication-boosts-pivec-on-off-court-
“I was talking this past week with an OSU alum,” she says. “He offered to let me be involved in a research project in OSU that entails teaching computers to do simple tasks … artificial intelligence within health care. I haven’t talked to Scott (Rueck, the OSU coach) about it yet, but if I’m there I hopefully could train at Oregon State.”
Pivec says after her playing career is over, she may attend medical school.
“If not, work in health care, as a researcher or in technology,” she says. “(The research project at OSU) is an opportunity that can help keep my foot in the door and get some experience for the next step after basketball.”
And, at some point, she hopes to start a family.
“I definitely want to have kids after I’m done playing,” he says. “I just don’t know the timing.”
Mikayla is excited to take part as one of the celebrities picking NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games in the “Pros vs. Joes” Bracket Challenge on kerryeggers.com.
“My goal is to beat you,” she says.
You need to shoot for higher goals than that, Mikayla.
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