“These girls work just as hard as some of the U SPORT athletes that we have here,” head coach Kristoffer La Guardia says
Photo by Leflicks.
With the fall semester well underway, the UVic Women’s Volleyball Team recently assembled their squad, and are looking forward to facing old rivals in the coming months.
However, the team’s regular season looks a little different than many others competing in collegiate sports due to one little hitch — they aren’t a varsity team.
Up until 1997, the UVic women’s volleyball team was a varsity team under Vikes Athletics, but it was cut as a cost-saving measure. Today, the teams still compete as clubs, but that competition looks vastly different.
Not being part of a varsity program means significantly fewer resources, and it also puts many national and international competitions out of reach. Since 1997, they have been unable to compete in Canada’s national (USPORT) tournaments, so they have had to turn south of the border for competition.
Both the men’s and women’s teams at UVic now play in the Pacific Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (PIVA), a club-level organization representing university volleyball clubs in the four pacific northwest states and British Columbia.
PIVA runs the majority of their tournament in the Spring semester, giving the UVic women’s volleyball club plenty of time to refine their roster and practice.
Come Spring, the team will be traveling to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana to play against other PIVA teams, and compete in PIVA tournaments.
The team had the opportunity to go to the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation’s (NCVF) Nationals competition last year, but the competition was being held in Missouri
“It would have meant flying there. That wasn’t going to be possible for us,” said fifth-year club player Megan Hands.
The club ended their season last year ranking 19th overall in the NCVF Women’s Division I. This was the first time ever in the program’s history that they have ranked nationally.
Last year, the club beat the Camosun Chargers, who were top four in the Pacific Western Athletic Association (PACWEST), and earlier this month, they took on Capilano University’s team — which currently being coached by the reigning Canada Collegiate Athletic Association (CCA) coach of the year, and has CCA player of the year on their roster — and won.
“I want to give everybody that chance to play with people that are better than them and to play with people a little less better than them,” said Head Coach Kristofer La Guardia. “Traveling to [and winning against] Capilano gave them a sense of hope.”
“I think we have a pretty good chance of hitting those [NCVF] rankings again this year,” he said.
During last season, the women’s club didn’t have a full time coach, and was largely coached and run by the players.
“Having a coach … like Kris and our two assistant coaches [Lucas Mafia and Talia Hill] there to critique us is awesome,” said Hands. “This way we can get feedback, and there’s no hard feelings because it’s a coach-player dynamic instead of player-player dynamic.”
Like other athletic clubs at UVic, the women’s volleyball club receives athletic club funding. The club also receives funding through Vikes Giving Day (a fundraiser for varsity teams and athletic clubs), and through fundraising they do over the summer and throughout the semester.
However, the rest of their expenses, such as additional gear, transportation, hotels, and physio or athletic therapists — unlike varsity teams, the club does not have access to the on-campus varsity sports injury clinic — all come out of the players pockets.
“For physio and athletic therapy, a lot of that is coming out of our own pocket, or if we’re lucky enough to have insurance, insurance will cover part of it,” said Hands.
“We’re still representing the school, so many of us would kill to have access to an athletic trainer to keep our bodies healthy.”
“If they felt a little more supported by the athletic administration, they’d be able to relieve that [financial] type of stress and then progress quicker and further,” said La Guardia.
“Decisions around varsity sport offerings are based on a range of considerations, including long-term sustainability, facilities, staffing, and alignment with departmental and university priorities,” said Clarke, director of varsity performance sport at UVic, in an emailed statement to The Martlet.
“Women’s volleyball has a strong history at UVic, and we recognize the passion that exists for the sport within our community,” Clarke continued.
“At this time, there are no plans to add another U SPORTS varsity program.”
