SFU Heads to the NCAA Division II Championship for the Second Time in Program History

The sole Canadian volleyball team in the NCAA is looking to turn some heads in the post-season. After finishing one of its best seasons ever, the Simon Fraser University team from Burnaby, BC, will head south of the border this week for the first round of the NCAA Division II Volleyball Championship. It’s only the second time in the program’s history the team has made it into the tournament.

SFU comes in as the number 7 seed in the West Regional. The team will be the underdog when facing GNAC champion and number 2 seed Western Washington in the quarterfinal match this Thursday.

The qualification process for the NCAA tournament is different from what Canadian teams would be familiar with in the USports league. 64 teams make it in to the NCAA Div II tournament and you need to be among the top 8 of your region. Three from the region are automatically in as top finishers, but the other five spots are voted on by a regional advisory committee. Simon Fraser was ranked as high as third in the region earlier in the year but a couple of losses at the end of the season bumped them down the ranks and it was uncertain if they would make it.

“We didn’t know for sure if we would be in. You have to sit there, wait and then get to watch your team be called“, says SFU Head Coach Gina Schmidt. “Everyone was very excited to make it in. Nobody on our team has made it to the tournament before. In 2019 we were one game away from making it, we needed that one win and we didn’t get it. We’ve been close, but it’s not easy, so this is huge, especially for our seniors.”

Despite being the underdog, Schmidt likes her team’s chances against Western Washington.

“It is always a grind when we play them and always a good game. We lost in 5 at home against them and lost in 4 there, just last weekend. They are a really good program, but we are very competitive with them.”

While Simon Fraser hasn’t yet been able to pull out a win against Western Washington, SFU isn’t a team you want to overlook. They came into this season as a relatively unknown squad. They graduated a class of six seniors back in 2019, and then when the pandemic struck, SFU was hit especially hard. Covid wreaked considerable havoc on their program, with half of the players and staff contracting the virus. Everyone spent considerable time in quarantine and everything came to a grinding halt. Even when their competition in the United States returned to practising and play – SFU did not. In fact, the team didn’t practice at all from February through to August.

So, when the team finally did get to return to the court – no one in the conference knew what to expect from the Canadians, and neither did Coach Schmidt.

“We rolled into the preseason in California and most of those girls hadn’t played since high school in a real game. Everyone was so excited to play, but I had no idea what we were facing. Fortunately, we had a good chemistry to build on.”

In her eighth season at the helm, Schmidt could see one thing right from the get-go – she had a deep and talented squad.

“One of our strengths is we have a lot of depth and we play really well together. I feel comfortable putting in any combination of players and they would have good chemistry. We have a balanced offence, so we don’t rely just on one person.”

While, the team doesn’t rely on just one attacker, right-side Brooke Dexter is a big part of the team’s success this year. She’s a left handed, true opposite who comes up with clutch kills at key times, whether she’s front row or hitting a D ball from the back row. Dexter’s excellence earned her the title of Freshman of the Year for the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Schmidt also credits the play and leadership of seniors, setter Julia Tays and libero Bianca Te, for her team’s trip to the post season.

Playing in the American league through a pandemic presented unique challenges to Simon Fraser. For every away game, the team is required to undergo covid testing first. This season, SFU had to fly to every game, even just across the border to Seattle, as driving across (as they normally would) wasn’t possible with the closed border. Coach Schmidt admits it has added an incredible amount of inconvenience and expense for the program.

It’s just one of the differences that comes with the unique title of being the sole Canadian volleyball team in the NCAA. Despite the current pandemic challenges – the distinction is one Schmidt relishes.

“It’s interesting because it makes us unique – a Canadian team who plays in the NCAA. We have recruited players who are looking for that. But I think outside of British Columbia there are a lot of players that don’t even know we are an option. If we can get people to visit and see our team play, it is comparable to the USport level, it’s just more teams. There are a lot of unique things we can offer to players.”

Making the Division II Championship is just the first step in a much loftier goal Schmidt has for her program. She would love to be the first Canadian team to win a NCAA championship. So far, no team sport has brought a title home yet.

“We are a contender but can we go further. To have a chance at a championship, we need to be able to recruit some of the top players from B.C. and Canada. Going forward, we have lots of depth. There will be competition for our starting setter and starting libero spots next year. We still have a very deep and solid core of players to build off of.”

Simon Fraser University kicks off their playoff run in the quarter finals against Western Washington University this Thursday, December 2 at 2:30 pm (PST) in San Bernardino, California.