Tessa Lavey

Tessa Rose Lavey (born 29 March 1993) is an Australian professional basketball player for the Bendigo Spirit of the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) and an Australian rules football player with the Richmond Football Club in the AFL Women's competition (AFLW).

Lavey was a member of the Australian Women's basketball team (Opals) at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Opals were eliminated after losing to the USA in the quarterfinals.

Early life Born in Swan Hill, Victoria, Lavey attended St. Mary's Primary School before moving to Hamilton to attend Monivae College. She moved to Bendigo in January 2009 where she attended Catholic College Bendigo before moving again later that year to Canberra to attend the Australian Institute of Sport and finish off her schooling at Lake Ginninderra Secondary College.

As a junior, Lavey played for the Swan Hill age divisions, participated in the Bendigo Basketball Association's summer competition, and represented the Eltham Wildcats in the Victorian Junior Basketball League.

Canberra Capitals Following the 2011–12 WNBL season, Lavey joined the Canberra Capitals Academy for the 2012 SEABL season. She subsequently joined the Canberra Capitals senior team for the 2012–13 WNBL season. She played nine games for Canberra in 2012–13 and scored four total points. In 41 games for Bendigo over two seasons, she averaged 1.8 points per game. She was later named the inaugural captain of the Lynx after impressing both her teammates and coaches with her work ethic and leadership on and off the training court during pre-season. On 9 December, she was named in the WNBL Team of the Week for the first time in 2015–16. She led the Lynx to a second place regular season finish with a 16–8 win–loss record, and went on to score 15 points in the team's semi-final win over the first-seeded Townsville Fire. With the win, the Lynx advanced to the WNBL grand final for the first time since 1999. There they were outclassed by the defending champion Townsville (who made it to the grand final via the preliminary final), losing the best-of-three series 2–0. In 26 games for the Lynx in 2015–16, she averaged 10.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game.

On 29 September 2016, Lavey underwent surgery to remove a blood vessel from her ankle and was subsequently ruled out for three to four weeks.

Dandenong Rangers On 19 May 2017, Lavey signed a two-year deal with the Dandenong Rangers.

Bendigo Spirit Lavey returned to the Spirit where she played during the 2019–20 season.

National basketball team career In August 2009, Lavey competed for Australia at the inaugural FIBA Oceania under-17 championships against New Zealand.

AFL Women's career After training with the club in the winter of 2020, Lavey was drafted by with the 43rd pick overall in the 2020 AFL Women's draft.