Olivia Ellis’ journey to 100 points

Little girls all over the world tune into the Winter Olympics and dream of being in them.

Olivia Ellis was one of these girls.

She ended up playing hockey after she told her dad she wanted to play while watching the Olympics. He signed her up for the Tim Horton's Timbits league and she fell in love with the game ever since.

Ellis has finished her senior season at SUNY Oswego with 109 points and is the first women’s hockey player in modern program history to reach the 100 point milestone.

“I was playing with Alexa Aramburu who put the pucks in the net and Andrea Noss too,” Ellis said. “I’m so grateful that I was able to become the first Laker and I think I’m very honored to become the first Laker to do that.”

Alexa Aramburu graduated last year but she was one of Ellis’ favorite people to play with.

“[Liv] grew as a strong leader and it showed on the stat sheet,” line mate Aramburu said. “I’m very proud of all that Liv accomplished in her four years of Laker hockey.”

Ellis was humble talking about her recent achievement and her performance on the ice shows how much of a team player she was.

“I think you see the number of assists she has she’s very unselfish and it’s wonderful to play with someone like that on your line,” head coach Diane Dillon said.

Reaching 100 points is a big deal for a women’s hockey player. The closest player in modern program history is Noss with 65 points.

“It’s a major milestone absolutely for any athlete and I’m really excited for Olivia because she worked really really hard at it,” Dillon said.

Ellis wasn’t the main point scorer of her team when she was in high school and it has taken years of hard work to accomplish what she has at Oswego.

“She is a true competitor,” Dillon said. “She hates to lose we all do but Liv really hates to lose so she’s willing to put the hard work in to get better because that’s fun to her.”

In addition to the hard work put in on and off the ice, Ellis faced challenges along the way.

“When I was being recruited to Oswego I actually broke my wrist in the summer playing rugby,” Ellis said. “I went to a showcase camp with a broken wrist and I wore a cast and I had to go on the ice and and still play and stuff which was pretty crazy.”

Ellis did not have any major injuries at Oswego besides a concussion but it was not during the season. During her last season, she was faced with an injury that stuck around longer than she would have liked.

“This past year I’ve been really struggling with a groin injury which has been pretty annoying and naggy so I’ve just been getting wrapped every game and every practice,” Ellis said.

It was hard to tell that Ellis was dealing with an injury with how well she played during her senior season. Coach Dillon remembered one of her goals from her past season vividly.

“I think there was a goal this year when I think Liv walked through the entire team of Potsdam,” Dillon said.

This goal caught the attention of many and even SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross.

Ellis is known for her talent on the ice but when she was growing up she was interested in playing as many sports as she could.

“I played soccer almost longer than I played hockey and I was going to try to walk on here but I just decided to play hockey,” Ellis said. “In high school I played pretty much every sport I played softball, rugby, soccer, lacrosse pretty much everything [and] volleyball.”

Ellis will be graduating in May but wants hockey to remain a part of her life.

“I think my hockey career is done but I definitely want to coach at some point in my life,” Ellis said. “Next year I think it would be really interesting if I could grad assistant at a school.”

Ellis’ dream job is to run a social media account for an NHL team one day.

“[We have been] helping her get some connections in the field and absolutely will do everything we can to help her out,” Dillon said. “I think she will be a great coach one day.”