Alexia Lemay-Evans knows Ontario volleyball.

A graduate of Collège Notre-Dame and product of the Northern Chill Volleyball Club system, the university sophomore not only competed against elite talent from right across the province but would go on to don the jersey of Team Ontario at various national-level events in recent years.

These days, she and her Acadia Axewomen teammates are intent on not only conquering the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) conference but also proving that they are more than competitive with the many schools from the land that she calls home.

Same goes for Acadia head coach Michelle Wood, a Toronto native who excelled during her five year career with the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, named as U Sports women's volleyball Coach of the Year just prior to nationals.

Same goes for Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School graduate and assistant coach at Acadia, Vanessa Chorkawy, who starred for Lakehead Thunderwolves in Thunder Bay during her time in the OUA.

Truth be told, there was a single-mindedness in the approach that one and all involved with the Axewomen carried into the 2024 U Sports Women's Volleyball Championships in Hamilton after Acadia captured the Atlantic banner for the first time in program history, making their first ever appearance at nationals.

"Our goal going in was to win that first game; that's all we talked about," said Lemay-Evans, just a few days removed from a 25-23, 28-26, 15-25, 19-25, 15-12 first round upset win over the third ranked Brock Badgers.

Unfortunately, once in the championship side of the draw, the Axewomen were derailed in their attempt to move further with back to back setbacks to the gold medal winning UBC Thunderbirds (16-25, 8-25, 21-25) and the bronze medal winning Manitoba Bisons (18-25, 13-25, 17-25).

Still, all in all, it was mission accomplished, at least to some extent, for Lemay-Evans and her teammates, the local woman earning a berth on the tournament all-star team for her efforts just over a week ago.

"I think we wanted to go out there and prove that there are some very confident and capable athletes in volleyball east, that our conference is able to compete with other conferences," said Lemay-Evans, who will be joined by younger sister Mia to start the 2024-2025 campaign.

"I think we were able to do that," she added. "I think people now appreciate the talent that exists out east and hopefully now that will continue to grow."

Ranked sixth entering the all-Canada event, the Axewomen were single-minded in their focus after sweeping the St Mary's Huskies in three sets (25-18, 27-25, 20-18) in the third and deciding match of the AUS final.

"We discussed before the first game that we were going to empty the tank on the first game and then take it from there," said Lemay-Evans.

After sitting third on her team in kills in game one, Lemay-Evans would lead Acadia in that statistical category in each of their last two games, earning Player of the Game honours in the loss to Manitoba - not that she loses much sleep on these things.

"It's tough to evaluate solely based on numbers, sometimes," she opined. "Something that I took away from the first game is something I have been working on all season: my defense and my blocking."

"That doesn't always come through in the numbers. You can see the stuffed blocks for points - but that doesn't cover much. How many positive touches are you getting? How many stuffs are you getting that force the other team to cover?"

"Those don't come up as points - and that was something I was really focusing on, so I was incredibly proud of that."

And while that element of pride also pertains to her selection to the tournament all-star team, Lemay-Evans also recognized the collaborative factors that can deeply effect these accolades.

"Individual awards in a team sport are interesting to me," suggested the insightful northern woman. "Volleyball, as a sport, is incredibly dependent on your teammates. In order for me to be successful, our setter has to be giving me great balls."

And for as much as she and her teammates were pleased with a first trip to nationals, it didn't take long at all for Lemay-Evans to turn her attention to areas of potential improvement with the aim of helping the Axewomen return in 2025.

"I really enjoy the AUS because we see the same teams so often - but at nationals, we were playing against teams who are used to playing teams in their conference maybe just once," she stated. "They're a little more used to making in game adjustments, replying a little less on historic game plan."

"That's something that we can work on moving forward."