'It’s a whole family here': Stina Almqvist cherishes final season with Penn women's basketball

Three years can go by in the blink of an eye. One day, you step onto Locust Walk knowing no one and unsure of where to go. The next, you’re a senior and you’ve stepped onto Locust Walk more times than you can count. It’s an age-old story of change that accompanies the college years.

And such is true for senior guard Stina Almqvist.

Three years ago, Almqvist arrived in Philadelphia. The trip was a long one — a nearly 12-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Almqvist hails from Sweden, where she grew up playing basketball for as long as she can remember.

Her family and life have always been interwoven with basketball. Her father Fredrik has been coaching for the past 40 years in her small hometown of Kinna. Fredrik managed a local club while Almqvist's mother Marie also served as a board member. Her older sister Jonna played basketball. As such, the Almqvist path was clear.

“Either you sit there and watch or you get on the court and play,” Almqvist said.

And, so, Almqvist laced up her shoes. Discussion about basketball circled around their dining table and NBA games played on the TV. While her father has not coached her since high school, Fredrik remains a large presence in her play, watching every Penn game and debriefing them with her. Almqvist returns the favor, watching every game her father coaches.

“He’s the reason I play basketball and the reason why I’m doing what I’m doing every day,” Almqvist said.

Under her father's tutelage, Almqvist began to flourish. She played in a professional league for two years and was invited to play for every Swedish youth national team from the U15 to U20 level. While a part of those teams, she collected medals of every color: bronze, silver, and gold.

Almqvist brought that experience to the United States. Now suited in the Red and Blue instead of yellow and blue, she became a rotational player from the start, proving a consistent off-the-bench presence over the course of her freshman and sophomore seasons.

But after the 2022-23 season, the team graduated several seniors including standouts Kayla Padilla, Mandy McGurk, and Sydnei Caldwell. After their graduation, Almqvist’s minutes increased, as did her role; due to a string of front-court injuries, the coaches urged Almqvist to play more like a forward.

“For me, it’s been a lot of fun,” Almqvist said. “It’s opened up a whole new opportunity for me in the offensive side scoring-wise that I did not have before at all.”

And score she did.

After starting in 27 of 28 games last year, Almqvist’s averages skyrocketed from 3.4 points per game to 15.3, which led the whole team. But it was not just scoring — Almqvist became a secondary interior presence for the Quakers, averaging 6.4 rebounds per game and 1.1 blocks per game, both good for second on the team. The season earned her second team All-Ivy honors.

But Almqvist’s value goes beyond the stat sheet. Now, after three years on the Red and Blue, Almqvist has been tapped as team captain, alongside fellow senior guard Lizzy Groetsch.

“[They] both walk[ed] in as freshman and [now you can] see where they are at now in terms of maturity, their growth, [and] their selflessness,” coach Mike McLaughlin said. “But I think in order to be a great leader, you got to bring the best out of everyone. So I think we got two special ones.”

The title is not one that Almqvist takes lightly. She takes inspiration from the captains that came before her and seeks to emulate their greatest qualities.

“It means a lot because the captains I’ve had during my time here at Penn have been great,” Almqvist said. “I remember coming in here and everything was so new. School’s hard, basketball’s hard, everything is just hard in the beginning, so [I was] just trying to adjust and balance.”

Having been in their shoes a few short years ago, Almqvist hopes to make the freshmen players’ transitions easier and keep them excited to play more basketball in her final year at Penn.

But most importantly, Almqvist wants to keep that family aspect on the team that has been so formative for her. In Sweden, there were limited basketball courts and a large number of teams seeking to use them, meaning practices were stricter in terms of time. And because many of her teammates on the professional circuit were older, they had their own lives to attend to, and could not bond the way Almqvist is able to with her teammates now.

“It’s a whole family here,” she said. “You spend so much time with them — it’s so different … it’s not only that we go to practice. When practice ends, we go to have dinner together. It’s all that, and I think that’s different.”

Now, Almqvist has one final season to cherish the college basketball experience. There are many things to be excited for this season — the new Big 5 Classic, the Ivy League matches and the Ivy League tournament, and a pair of rematches with rival Princeton. But for Almqvist, the moments with her family, both in Sweden and the States, will always mean the most.