First year, first nationals for Lucie Shaver

After contributing to the Marauder women's volleyball team and featuring in a tense nationals game, first year Lucie Shaver shares her perspective and excitement for whats to come

Among the success and growth of McMaster women’s volleyball this season, first year Lucie Shaver has had the unique task of transitioning from high-school to Ontario University Athletics volleyball. With this, she’s been in many exciting positions throughout the season, including a tense U Sports quarterfinals match. 

For Shaver, the transition to OUA athletics has been one filled with learning. She noted the increased speed and power of play that happens in university volleyball. 

“The biggest thing I notice is that the game is very much faster. It's much faster. Everybody hits the ball harder, everybody moves faster and the moves are a lot more crisp and more precise. One thing I found in high school was like there's often like two or three good players on the team that have to carry a lot of weight but that is not really the case here,” said Shaver. 

Despite the high level of play, Shaver have risen to the occasion this season. The team ended the OUA season by winning the Quigley Cup against Brock University. Shaver has attributed part of the team's success this season to head coach Nathan Janzen.

“Nate's also very like a statistical coach. He's big into stats, so he looks at patterns of the other team and he'll even map out where the other team's hitters hit most and like he'll do like serving charts. So you see like, oh they serve from this angle to this side of the court . . . you can see if they mix up the depth of their serves as well or if they're all serving all long or all super short,” said Shaver. 

The team’s achievements this year brought the Marauders to the U Sport’s nationals, hosted in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In the team’s first game, they went up against the University of Montreal Carabins, who were ranked fifth in the tournament. 

In this game, the Marauders lost their first set against the Carbins but impressively won sets two and three. In the game’s fourth set, it seemed as though Janzen wanted to change things up, as the team was struggling to put points up. This is when Shaver entered the match.

As such a young player in a team full of veterans like Sullie Sundara and Emma McKinnon, Shaver is not always put on the court. But, Janzen still had trust in Shaver's abilities and this trust was on full display when he subbed her into such a close match on the national stage. Shaver describes how this moment felt and how it influenced the rest of the tournament for her. 

“Yeah, well, there have been a few times throughout the season where Nate's kind of put me in a few high pressure moments and so like going in I was definitely nervous, really nervous. But I kind of knew I could do it, just had to put some serves in. Then when I got subbed in for the rest of the tournament, I was kind of like, okay, I've got a sense of it and I was having a lot more fun,” said Shaver. 

The Marauders managed to score a few more points with Shaver in the fourth set, but ultimately lost the it. They then lost the crucial fifth set against the Carabins, losing the game.

This loss put the Marauders into the consolation bracket of the tournament with the chance to finish in fifth place if the team won two consolation games.

“It was definitely upsetting, but I think the biggest takeaway is that we still wanted to finish the season on a high note, especially for our seniors who were leaving, and I think that was just the most important thing for the rest of the tournament,” said Shaver. 

The team did just that; they defeated both Memorial University in the first match and Saint Mary’s University in the second consolation match, earning the Marauders a fifth-place finish. Shaver was able to play in these matches and highlighted how she felt during the games.

“On the times that I did go into the court for the other two games, I was kind of just happy to be there and happy to be playing. It just made me really excited for next season as well to keep playing,” said Shaver.

As the year has wrapped up, Shaver’s first season has turned out to be one she is happy with. Volleyball fans and the sports community at McMaster will look to see what lies ahead for her and the rest of her teammates in their next season.