KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — University of Tennessee women’s basketball head coach Kellie Harper announced Saturday that Marta Suárez of Oviedo, Asturias, Spain, has signed a National Letter of Intent to join the Lady Vol basketball program.
Suárez, a 6-foot-2 guard/forward who attended high school at INS Joaquim Blume, is listed as a four-star prospect by Blue Star Europe. She will be a freshman this fall and bring UT’s number of newcomers to four entering the 2020-21 campaign.
“We are thrilled to add Marta Suárez to the Lady Vol family,” Harper said. “Marta is a very versatile player and possesses a wide skill set. She can handle the ball, pass, post up, rebound and score. In addition, she is a very hard worker and is quite competitive.”
The newest Lady Vol will join Tess Darby (6-1, G/F, Greenfield, Tenn., Greenfield H.S.) and Destiny Salary (6-0, G, Jonesboro, Ark., Jonesboro H.S.) in the prep signing class of 2020. With the addition of graduate transfer Keyen Green (6-1, F/C, Philadelphia, Pa., Phil-Mont Christian Academy) from Liberty University, UT has increased its roster to 12 players.
While playing during the 2019-20 season for Segle XXI Bercelona in Spain’s LF2 League, Suárez led that team by averaging 12.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest as a starter. She shot 46 percent from the field, 34.6 percent on three pointers and 73.3 percent from the free throw line. She connected on 27 treys in 20 games played.
In international competition, Suárez represented Spain at the 2018 FIBA U16 Women’s European Championship from Aug. 17-25 in Kaunas, Lithuania, helping her native country place third. Seeing 16.9 minutes of action in seven tourney games, she averaged 7.0 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.4 assists while shooting 51.1 percent from the field. She had an average plus/minus of 15, with only one game below 12 and five at 15 or more.
Coming off the bench in five of seven contests, Suárez had bests of 15 points (on 7-of-9 shooting) and six rebounds vs. Belgium. She contributed 12 points (on 6-of-11 shooting) and added four boards in the third-place game victory over Turkey.
Suárez is the fourth international player in Lady Vol history, with Cheridene Green (London, England) beginning the trend by joining the program for the 2016-17 campaign and wrapping up her UT career in 2018-19. She was followed by Lou Brown (Melbourne, Australia) from 2018-20 and Jessie Rennie (Bendigo, Australia) from 2019-20 to present.
-UT Athletics
