Jenay Varga named ACAC Female Athlete of the Year

It feels like every few weeks, there's a new honour to bestow on Lakeland left-side Jenay Varga.

The third-year from Muenster, SK has been named ACAC Female Athlete of the Year, adding the numerous award nominations and wins she's had in the 2022/2023 season in women's volleyball. Varga's accomplishments included a third straight season of making the ACAC All-Conference Team and second straight year of being a ACAC Tournament All-Star Team and ACAC North Division Player of the Year. She was also named a CCAA All-Canadian for the second straight year and won Tournament MVP at the CCAA National Championship.

Following her MVP win, her coach Austin Dyer said that her hitting accuracy is remarkable, given that being undersized makes it hard to score on almost every swing.

"She can hit every off-speed shot," he said. "To have a player that can do that with the arm she has, she's in a league of her own and we're very grateful that she's on our team."

Varga's third season as a collegiate All-Star was her best yet in the statistics department. She lead the ACAC in kills per set (4.09, service aces per set (.8) and points per set (5), along with the accumulative totals of those stats. Additionally, she finished third in hitting percentage, in the top 25 for digs per set and was apart of one of the serve-receive tandems in the country.

At the CCAA Championship, her all-around dominance was on display, posting 41 kills, 3 aces, 1 block and 21 digs in just 10 sets. The championship winning point, a diving pass to a hard cross-court kill, was a note perfect summation of her season.

"She so's athletic and dynamic," Dyer said. "Just a phenomenal play and a perfect way to win a championship, similar to 2017 when we got a block from our blocking sub Bailee Weiler."

Varga is taking a Bachelor of General Studies at Lakeland College. The 2023 conference and national gold medals are her third and fourth pieces of team hardware, after being a part of the 2019 ACAC Bronze medal winning team and the 2022 Silver last season.