With teammates Abby Hettinga and Cali Cencig in support, Kelowna Owls' Ryenn Schutz rises for a block during the Best of the West girls and boys volleyball tournament staged at Kelowna Secondary this past weekend. Owls teams won both championship finals and the boys, who topped Langley Chrisitan for gold, can be seen in the midst of their match as well. (Photo property of KSS athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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A golden moment times two as Kelowna Owls girls & boy volleyball win simultaneous, side-by-side double gold at own Best of the West invitational!

KELOWNA — In case you were looking for signs of school spirit coming out of COVID’s lost 2020-21 season, the fans inside the gym as Kelowna Secondary School this past weekend, although limited by health protocols, gave every indication that it’s clearly alive and well.The Best of the West senior boys and girls volleyball tournament, […]

Teams like Campbell River's Carihi Tyees, pictured here from their most recent 2019 season, are among the fabulous 40 which find themselves Top 10-ranked at one of B.C.'s four tiers to start the 2020-21 season. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of photographer 2021. All Rights Reserved)
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BC Girls High School Volleyball rankings: The Fab 40 have arrived! Top 10s from all four tiers show South Delta, Mt. Doug, Abby Christian and Unity at the top of the charts!

LANGLEY — From every corner of our vast province, girls high school volleyball programs have been getting back to play over the past month.Finally, we’ve got our first set of Top 10 rankings at all tiers.Here’s the first set of B.C. School Sports girls volleyball rankings for the 2020-21 season.A regular landing spot for rankings […]

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)
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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.)
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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 […]

The pandemic may have scrubbed the 2020 B.C. senior girls volleyball season, but nothing can stop the Varsity Letters annual B.C. Super 15 poll. Among this season's top players are (left to right) Kelowna Owls' Anya Pemberton and Madison Shanks, Sydney Wright of Surrey's Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers, Madison Gardner of Vernon's W.L. Seaton Sonics and Eva Person of Victoria's Stelly's Stingers. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2020. All Rights Reserved)
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Our 12th annual edition: Who are B.C.’s Top 15 Grade 12 girls volleyball players? Check out our 2020-21 Dream Team!

LANGLEY — Way back in December of 2009, when UBC Thunderbirds’ head coach Doug Reimer floated an idea past me to honour the best girls and boys high school volleyball players in B.C. on an annual basis, little did either of us know that a dozen years later, the concept would be as fresh today […]

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)
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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 […]

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)
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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 […]

Kelowna's Madelyn Hettinga capped her senior season with another B.C. title, as well as No. 2 on our list of B.C.'s Top 15 girls Grade 12 volleyball talents. (Photo by Vancouver Sports Pictures property of VSP 2019. All Rights Reserved)
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Our 11th annual edition: Who are B.C.’s Top 15 senior girls Grade 12 volleyball players? Check out our 2019-20 Dream Team!

LANGLEY — B.C.’s best senior girls Grade 12 volleyball players from the Class of 2019-20 were determined by a vote involving the head coaches of B.C.’s four U Sports programs — UBC, UBC Okanagan, Thompson Rivers and Trinity Western — as well as NCAA Simon Fraser.

Vancouver's Little Flower Academy Angels come together to celebrate a B.C. senior girls Triple A volleyball title that seemed unlikely at time earlier in the day. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2019. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. Girls Triple A Volleyball Finals: Little Flower’s unflappable Angels find their golden finish by hitting Final Four re-set button

LANGLEY — After a semifinal scare nearly derailed their championship aspirations, Vancouver’s Little Flower Academy Angels barely gave their opponents a sniff the rest of the way.The Angels were down 2-0 in Saturday morning’s semifinal against Vernon’s W.L. Seaton Sonics and with their backs against the proverbial wall, LFA came out and delivered six dominant […]

Kelowna's gritty Owls dug deep to rally and top Surrey's Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers in the B.C. senior girls Quad-A championship match Saturday at the LEC. (Photo by Garrett James property of the Langley Events Centre 2019. All Rights Reserved)
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B.C. Girls Quad A Volleyball Finals: Kelowna Owls dig out of an early hole, soar past Tweedsmuir to grab provincial title

By Gary AhujaLangley Events CentreLANGLEY — After looking at Madelyn Hettinga’s tear-streaked face, you may have assumed her Kelowna Owls had been on the wrong end of the final score in Saturday’s B.C. senior girls Quad A volleyball championship final.You would be wrong.Hettinga and the Kelowna Owls had rallied back from a 10-point first-set deficit […]