Mackenzie Pool (top, centre) elected to stay in Canada to play her university volleyball. The Alberta Pandas couldn't be happier. (Photo by Ken Pool for Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

Our 13th annual edition: Who are B.C.’s Top 15 Grade 12 girls volleyball players? Check out our 2021-22 Dream Team!

LANGLEY — Pandemic or not, Varsity Letters has never failed to deliver what has become one of our most eagerly-anticipated features, and that’s why we’re happy to bring you our 13th straight edition of B.C.’s Top 15 high school volleyball players.Last year, even with the entire season cancelled due to COVID, our unflappable panel of […]

Back at Notre Dame and prepping for high school graduation this spring, Jugglers' standout Mackenzie Pool has prepped for a post-secondary and international career by spending the past two season's with Volleyball Canada's National Excellence Program. (Photo by Angela Rivera property of Notre Dame athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

Notre Dame’s Mackenzie Pool: B.C. Girls Volleyball 2021-22 Player of the Year, a study in impassioned learning on & off court, makes Alberta Pandas her next stop!

VANCOUVER — Just as she’s done in laying the academic foundation for a potential future in law school, Mackenzie Pool has brought a student’s curiosity to everything she’s accomplished on the volleyball court as one of Canada’s up-and-coming young stars.And in keeping with that theme, it’s no stretch to say that on her way to […]

After over 1,000 days since the program's official launch, Fraser Valley Cascades' men's and women's volleyball coaches Nathan Bennett (left) and Janelle Rozema preside over their respective team's home Canada West debuts this Friday against visiting Thompson Rivers. (Photo graphic by Dan Kinvig property of UFV Athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

“It’s been an Everest of a task!” After 1,003 days of waiting, gritty UFV Cascades’ volleyball teams make their Canada West home debuts Friday!

ABBOTSFORD — More times than not, it’s felt like an impossible journey for the women’s and men’s volleyball players who populate the expansion rosters of the Fraser Valley Cascades.And we’re not espousing about anything here as grandiose as either program capturing a national title in their debut seasons in U SPORTS.No.All we’re talking about is […]

What a combo they've been! With senior setter Julia Tays (front) and freshman right side Brooke Dexter (foreground) developing a unique chemistry this season, Simon Fraser has beaten some of the best teams in NCAA Div. 2 volleyball. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Volleyball

SFU Volleyball 2021: With Seniors Night weekend on tap, who knew that Simon Fraser’s ‘X’ factor would be it’s well-hidden group of third-year freshmen!

BURNABY — When the Simon Fraser volleyball team finally de-camped from its endless months of limited practice inside the West Gym and eventually stepped off a plane in California over the first week of September to open its 2021 season, who knew that its X factor would be its inexperience?Huh?“When you have all of these […]

Since graduating from Vancouver's Prince of Wales Secondary in 2016, Sadie Wilson has travelled a long volleyball road, including a stop at Vancouver Island University (above) before finally arriving in Abbotsford with the Fraser Valley Cascades. (Photo by Northfield Photography provided courtesy VIU Athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

A Sunday Read: Sadie Wilson’s winding road to the front row signals spike in fortunes as UFV’s volleyball Cascades prep for 2021-22 Canada West debut!

ABBOTSFORD — After years of waiting, Sadie Wilson’s inner volleyball radar is picking up the pulses of positivity.Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say, speaking in the language of her sport, that the 6-foot-1 right-side hitter is sensing a long-anticipated spike in her fortunes.To her, such peaks are welcome, especially when viewed against all of […]

Simon Fraser volleyball will return just two seniors for a hopeful 2021-22 GNAC season, and setter Julia Tays (left) and libero Bianca Te have epitomized the character and leadership needed to endure what may well be a near two-year span of inactivity due to the global pandemic. (Photos by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser athletics 2021. Photo graphic created by Gabriel Lynn. All Rights Reserved.)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

Senior Service: Over a season that never was, Simon Fraser’s duo of Tays and Te kept character at the fore for the sake of the future!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Bianca Te and Julia Tays never doubted they would finish what they started.Yet the two lone returning seniors with the Simon Fraser women’s volleyball team never figured that the toughest test of their NCAA careers atop Burnaby Mountain would be defined by their response to the day-in, day-out grind of not playing.In […]

Emoni Bush of Campbell River's Carihi Tyees is Varsity Letters' 2020-21 B.C. senior girls volleyball Player of the Year. Bush will next season head to Seattle and join the Pac 12's Washington Huskies. (Photos by Paul Yates and Jon Hayduk property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

There’s a name for that dream! Carihi Tyees’ Emoni Bush, B.C. Girls Volleyball 2020-21 Player of the Year, takes her golden spike to Pac 12’s UW Huskies!

Ask Emoni Bush to trace the origins of her unique given name, and the senior volleyball standout with Campbell River’s Carihi Tyees delivers her answer with an appropriate hint of joyous wonder.“What I’ve heard is that it came to my dad in a dream,” says Bush.Trace the journey she has made in the sport over […]

They still have plenty of obstacles to navigate en route to a GNAC volleyball campaign, but Friday's news of a spring season was good news for head coach Gina Schmidt's team, who are savouring their moments to be back in the gym together and training as a team. (Photo by Paul Yates property of SFU athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Volleyball

Simon Fraser fall sports like volleyball, soccer spring forward to 2021! “We still have that carrot to go after” says SFU coach Gina Schmidt

BURNABY — Simon Fraser University volleyball players know that a lot of things are still going to have to happen in order for some semblance of a Great Northwest Athletic Conference season to unfold in the new year.

Following her stint playing for Canada at the NORCECA qualifier in October, Hilary Howe has been playing at a new level for the 22-2 TWU Spartans women's volleyball team. (Photo by Scott Stewart property of Trinity Western athletics 2020. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Volleyball

After 2019’s five-set national tourney heartbreaker, TWU Spartans head coach Ryan Hofer asks “…how can we all be two points better?”

LANGLEY — The more Ryan Hofer stared at a set numbers which represented perhaps the most crushing defeat in the history of Trinity Western women’s volleyball, the more clearly he was able to decipher their truest meaning.“Two points,” Spartans’ head coach Hofer exclaimed Wednesday morning when the topic got around to his team’s epic five-set […]

Despite her lofty array of talents, Lord Byng's Katarina Pantovic (centre) put being a great teammate at the very top of her list. The Grey Ghost senior is headed for the Pac 12 next season and she is Varsity Letters' 2019-20 B.C. Girls Player of the Year. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters.ca 2019. All Rights Reserved) (Photo by Vancouver Sports Pictures property of VSP 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

Katarina Pantovic: Lord Byng’s volleyball superstar our unanimous choice as B.C.’s best high school volleyball player in the Class of 2019-20

VANCOUVER — Speak to Katarina Pantovic for any amount of time, and you very suddenly realize that the senior volleyball whiz from Vancouver’s Lord Byng Secondary School has taken not a single moment along the journey of her athletic career for granted.“I have the perfect example where I can say that mental toughness really came […]