Player Highlight: Carly Hawryluk, Women’s Volleyball

Lakeland's women's volleyball team departs for Camrose this week seeking their fourth straight ACAC title and they'll need the high-powered swing of Carly Hawryluk to do it.

The third year left-side from the Border City said the group has been eagerly awaiting this moment. Since late November, the Rustlers have won 11 straight and enter as the favourite, despite playing top-ranked Red Deer in the quarterfinals.

"We're not trying to prove anything this weekend," Hawryluk said. "The focus is to do it for each other, having fun and laughing and enjoying playing the sport we love at our favourite time of the year." 

Hawryluk's journey to leading the defending national champions in kills and points per set wasn't a typical one. Having grown up in Lloydminster, she originally didn't plan on playing club volleyball in her grade 12 season, after having played in Saskatoon and then missing out on a season due to the pandemic. However, she played for the Rustlers 18U team and her height and jumping ability caught the eye of coach Austin Dyer. While he saw potential, the Rustlers bench boss did not expect how meteoric her rise would be over the last few years.

"I don't think anyone, including Carly, would have believed she would develop to the point she is currently at," Dyer said. "Which is one of, if not the most, dominant attackers in the [country]." 

Hawryluk credits the lessons she learned as a rookie for shaping her post-secondary development. After playing a starring role in high school, the athletic spiker found the experience humbling.

"I definitely had that ego that I was the best," Hawryluk said. "But it was transformed when I realized I was back to square one and realized I have to reset and work hard. Thinking about how I far I've come since then, that's the best part to look back on, how much I've grown as a person in that time."

"I remember to this day, this one time Austin asked me about something I was doing and asked if I would do that if my teammates could see me? You can apply that to almost anything, such as instead of studying for an exam, you're scrolling on your phone. Would you do that if your teammates could see you? That helped me realize what this team was about."

"She has a quirky personality, combined with a real competitive mindset," Dyer added. "It has been a lot of fun watching her grow as a person and an athlete and I'm excited to see where we can get her to."

Wanted to be as good as she could be, in her third season, second playing, it started to grow in confidence, started to doubt herself less and grow in confidence. She also benefitted from watching great players ahead of her, like Jenay Varga and Lana Matthews, seeing how they carried themselves.

As Hawryluk's confidence grew and doubts started to disappear, she learned on and off the court by watching the great players that carried the team during this championship run. Former Player of the Year Jenay Varga in particular, had a significant influence through how she carried herself.

"You would see her mess up a couple of times and instead of smacking the ground and getting upset, she would shrug and say 'alright, let's move on,'" Hawryluk said.

This was also on display in the biggest moment of the third year's career, she had to come into the National Championship match for team MVP Avery Bates, who went down with an ankle injury. 

"I was so nervous and Jenay looked me and told me I'm fine," Hawryluk said. "It's a key lesson for any athlete. You're going to make mistakes, what's important is going about your business and having fun with [your teammates]."

That lesson is on her mind as they team prepares to compete in the postseason this weekend and is the first thing she would tell young athletes.

"Within our team we say be a goldfish and just play," Hawryluk said. "Thinking about what you did wrong and thinking about over and over again, you're just hyper fixating on something you don't have control over."

"And if you're not hitting well, focused on passing or other things to help your team."

Carly Hawryluk is in her third year of competitive eligibility at Lakeland College, taking Business Administration. You can watch the women's volleyball team play in their quarterfinal matchup at 3:00 pm Feb. 27 on ACAC TV.