Born in Zagreb, Ivančević took up gymnastics at an early age but switched to athletics at the age of 15 after ten years of little success in her previous sport.[1] Focusing on hurdling instead, she competed internationally as a youth and ran in the heats of both the 2001 World Youth and the 2002 World Junior Championships in Athletics. She ran a Croatian junior record at the latter event.[2] She gradually improved her personal bests in her first seasons as a senior athlete, having a best of 13.86 seconds for the 100 m hurdles in 2003, 13.64 in 2004, then 13.60 in 2005.[3] She competed in the heats only of the 2005 European Athletics U23 Championships and made her senior debut at the 2006 European Athletics Championships, again only competing in the heats.[4] A personal best of 13.42 seconds came in 2006, but a further appearance at the 2007 Summer Universiade saw her again fail to pass the heats.[5]
Ivančević broke new ground at the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships. Having national record times of 8.02 seconds in the heats and 7.97 seconds in the semi-finals, she made her first continental final and ended up seventh overall.[1]