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 […]

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 […]

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.

Simon Fraser's Farnaaz Johal has emerged as one of the rising young stars on a Clan volleyball team riding a five-game GNAC win streak into a four-game homestead beginning Thursday atop Burnaby Mountain. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Simon Fraser Clan athletics 2019. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Women's Volleyball

Clan ‘creating their own luck’ as preparation, opportunity meet to give SFU volleyball chance to set new program GNAC win streak on ‘Dig Pink’ night

BURNABY — You’ve no doubt heard about the concoction produced from that time-tested recipe, the one where preparation meets opportunity?Simon Fraser head volleyball coach Gina Schmidt isn’t denying the existence of old-fashioned good luck at various points of the five-match win streak her Clan (7-3) carry into the start of a four-game Great Northwest Athletic […]

The late West Vancouver Highlanders' senior girls volleyball head coach Mike MacNeil was an inspiration to so many, including current Simon Fraser Clan volleyball star Betsie de Beer (second from right). (Photo by Jo-Anne McKee property of West Vancouver Secondary athletics 2019. All rights reserved)
Feature High School Girls Volleyball University Women's Volleyball

SFU’s Betsie de Beer: Clan volleyball star’s homage to her late high school coach Mike MacNeil reminds us all of the power of mentorship

BURNABY — Betsie de Beer doesn’t try to hide the fact that she is playing her final season of collegiate volleyball with a heavy heart.At the same time, however, Simon Fraser’s talented 6-foot-1 outside hitter and health sciences major can’t exactly offer a scientific explanation as to why of late, that heart of hers has […]

The evolution of Simon Fraser Clan senior libero Jayme Bratsberg (centre) is reflected in the confident and rising tone of her voice. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Simon Fraser Clan athletics)
Simon Fraser middle blocker Tessa May (21) has persevered through injury to become a heart-and-soul force with the Clan. (Varsity Letters photo by Howard Tsumura)
Feature University Women's Volleyball

Tessa’s Terms: Simon Fraser’s gutsy middle blocker on living a true May Day

BURNABY — Tessa May has struck a treaty with her aching shins, a peace accord of sorts that says she’ll do the hundreds of hours of physiotherapy as long as she gets to pull on her No. 21 game-day jersey with the Simon Fraser Clan volleyball team.

Fifth-year senior middle blocker Madison Power (11) brings a bushel of intangibles to the Clan volleyball team. (Ron Hole/SFU athletics)
Feature University Women's Volleyball

The Power of Maddy: Clan senior Madison Power a foundational key in success of SFU volleyball

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Ask Gina Schmidt about her first official day on the job as the then-new head coach of the Simon Fraser Clan volleyball team and you get a story filled with both comedy and karma.“I watched one practice where they weren’t really doing a lot of game play,” Schmidt remembers of a day […]