By: Evan O'Kelly, Associate Commissioner for Communications

Photos by: Gordon Kalisch / FastTrackSportsPhotography

PORTLAND, Ore. – For the Simon Fraser volleyball team, the focus going into last week’s road tilt against Great Northwest Athletic Conference-leading Central Washington wasn’t about the end product.
 
“We know CWU is a good team and that it was an important match,” said 12th-year SFU head coach Gina Schmidt. “We spent a lot of time focusing on the process. We try not to talk too much about wins and losses but about, ‘how do we get better every day?’ We focused on things that would help us last weekend, and it worked in our favor.”
 
The process-oriented Red Leafs swept the Wildcats – who were previously unbeaten in GNAC play – before topping Northwest Nazarene 3-1 to climb into a tie for first place in the GNAC standings. Winners of six straight and sitting at 12-4 overall and 8-1 in league play, Simon Fraser was named the GNAC Team of the Week on Monday.
 
The win over Central Washington didn’t come easy, with the Red Leafs trailing the opening set 24-22 before rattling off four straight points to claim the 26-24 win. “The first set could’ve gone either way, and it could have been a different match if they had taken it,” Schmidt said on her team’s first set of the week last Thursday. “I thought we did a really good job of staying composed when we were down and focusing on one point at a time. The first set was pivotal and coming away with that gave us momentum into the next two sets.”
 
Junior setter Eva Person took command at the end of the opening salvo, setting up Davida Hill for back-to-back kills before ending the set with a combo block alongside Nina Kovacevic. Person leads the GNAC this season with 8.84 assists per set and ranked second among GNAC players last week with 10.43 assists per set. A native of Brentwood Bay, B.C., Person enters the week with 1,881 career assists and an average of 7.62 assists per set. “She is a student of the game and has done a good job all season of distributing the ball with tempo and finding the right hitters at the right time,” Schmidt said of the third-year Red Leaf. “She gets everybody incorporated in the offense. Teams can’t just key on Brooke (Dexter) because we have other attackers, and it comes down to having a setter who can deliver consistently. Our other setter Ella McVittie is very good too, and the double sub has been key and very efficient for us. Sometimes the difference in a match is getting stuck in a rotation, and having a good double sub helps us get out of that.”
 
Person facilitated an offense led by seniors Brooke Dexter and Hill, who averaged 4.29 kills per set and 3.71 kills per set, respectively last week. Hill led the team with a 15-kill, 11-dig double-double in the win over CWU, before Dexter put together a 20-kill, 11-dig performance in the triumph over the Nighthawks. “Playing on the road is tough in anybody’s gym, and we learned that lesson last year at NNU losing in three,” said Schmidt. “We knew they were a tough team, and they dig a lot of balls which can be frustrating offensively. They do a good job of extending rallies and making you earn points. They had a few hitters we were having trouble stopping, but there are a lot of different ways to win a game. I thought our team did a good job of maintaining composure and finding ways to get the job done.”
 
Both Dexter, a 2023 first-team all-GNAC selection, and Hill, who was named GNAC Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 23, are enjoying breakout seasons of sorts. Dexter leads the GNAC with 4.04 kills per set – 0.70 kills per set higher than the next-closest attacker – while ranking fifth in the league with a hitting percentage of .299. The GNAC’s active leader in career kills with 1,171, Dexter passed SFU’s Tessa May (1,167 kills, 2015-18) for the most kills by a Red Leaf since SFU joined the GNAC in 2010. Injuries limited Dexter to a career-low 2.67 kills per set last season, but she has bounced back this fall to emerge as one of the top offensive threats in the league. The 2021 GNAC Freshman of the Year, Dexter is also averaging a career-high 0.61 blocks per set and 0.35 aces per set this season. “She is a great player and the statistical jump might stand out to the outside observer, but it’s something she’s always been capable of,” Schmidt said of the Anchorage, Alaska native. “The last few years she has battled through some injuries. It speaks to her skill and work ethic that she is healthy and almost at full power, and now we are seeing what she is capable of. She has been a great leader, and having somebody like her on the team gives the whole team confidence. Whenever you need it, you know she can put a ball away for you.”
 
Hill meanwhile ranks fourth in the conference with 3.18 kills per set and eighth in the league with a hitting percentage of .272. After being limited to just 10 matches and 21 sets played last year with an injury, Hill is also enjoying a career year. In addition to her top-tier offensive numbers, Hill’s 0.33 blocks per set and 2.02 digs per set are both career highs. “It’s not surprising to me or our team,” Schmidt said on Hill’s breakout performance this fall. “We have always known how great of an athlete Dav is. Last year she was just injured for most of it. Now that she is healthy, there is an opportunity for her to demonstrate that to everybody else.”
 
Part of the Red Leafs’ success last week came at the net, with GNAC Defensive Player of the Week Ezawa Malish racking up 15 total blocks and leading all GNAC players with 2.14 blocks per set last week. In her second season on the floor with SFU, Malish ranks second in the conference with 1.20 blocks per set. “I am glad to see her get some acknowledgement, because with some of the big hitters we have she doesn’t always get recognition,” Schmidt said on the senior from Coquitlam, B.C. “She has been steady for us all season with her blocking and leadership as a senior. If a team has a key hitter, we are always hoping that Ezawa is matched up with them. She fires up our team when she gets those blocks, and she does a great job of putting up a wall.”
 
Sophomore libero Macyn Unger has propelled the team’s ball control this season, ranking third in the conference with 4.40 digs per set. The Prince George, B.C., native had 16 digs in the win over NNU, and has reached double digits in digs in all but two matches this season. “We are lucky to have someone like Macyn who is consistent and steady,” Schmidt said. “She is a calming presence on the court. Even when things are not going her way, she finds a way to stick with it and you don’t see a lot of ups and downs with her. She has been steady for us both on serve-receive and defense. It’s nice to know we have somebody like that in the back row to anchor our defense.”
 
In 2013 Schmidt inherited an SFU program that had combined to go 9-61 in its first three seasons in the GNAC, failing to compete and finishing in last place in consecutive years. While getting her bearings, Schmidt led the team to a much-improved 11-13 record and a mark of 6-12 in conference play to finish in seventh place in her debut season. Since then, SFU has never had a losing record in conference play and has never finished in the lower half of the league standings. Schmidt has led the Red Leafs to the NCAA tournament twice, after third-place finishes in the GNAC standings in both 2016 (21-8, 14-6) and 2021 (17-9, 11-7).
 

Red Leaf Volleyball Success Under Gina Schmidt (2013-Current)
Season	Overall	GNAC	Place	Notes
2010	4-18 (.182)	4-14 (.222)	9th	First season in NCAA
2011	1-21 (.045)	1-17 (.056)	10th
2012	4-22 (.154)	1-17 (.056)	10th
Pre-Schmidt	9-61 (.129)	6-48 (.125)	--
2013	11-13 (.458)	6-12 (.333)	7th	Gina Schmidt's 1st season as SFU H.C.
2014	17-9 (.654)	11-7 (.611)	5th	First winning season in NCAA
2015	15-13 (.536)	11-9 (.550)	5th
2016	21-8 (.724)	14-6 (.700)	3rd	First NCAA playoff appearance
2017	15-13 (.536)	12-8 (.600)	5th
2018	15-11 (.577)	12-8 (.600)	4th
2019	17-11 (.607)	13-7 (.650)	4th
2020	0-0 (.000)	0-0 (.000)	--	Season canceled - COVID19 pandemic
2021	17-9 (.654)	11-7 (.611)	T3rd	Second NCAA playoff appearance
2022	13-14 (.481)	10-8 (.556)	5th
2023	16-10 (.615)	11-7 (.611)	4th
2024	12-4 (.750)	8-1 (.889)	T1st	9 GNAC matches remaining (as of Oct. 21)
Schmidt Totals	169-115 (.595)	119-80 (.598)	--	6th-most overall wins in GNAC history

 
There is still half a conference schedule in front of them, but with nine matches to go in the regular season a first-ever GNAC title is certainly not out of reach for the Red Leafs. Producing stellar numbers on both sides of the ball, Simon Fraser leads the GNAC in kills per set (13.19), assists per set (12.23), hitting percentage (.239), points per set (17.50), opponents’ hitting percentage (.158) and opponents’ kills per set (11.32). Led by Schmidt – the sixth-winningest coach in GNAC history with a career record of 169-115 (.595) – SFU received votes in the American Volleyball Coaches Association top-25 poll last week for the second time this season.
 
For all the successes SFU has enjoyed this season, there is one blemish in the win-loss column: A 3-0 defeat at Western Washington on Sept. 27. Up next for the Red Leafs is a chance to avenge their only loss of the first half, as they host the Vikings in a prime-time match on Saturday evening at the West Gym (7 p.m. PT).


 
“Last time we played Western the outcome wasn’t what we wanted,” said Schmidt, whose team was limited to a .172 attack percentage while allowing its second-highest opponents’ attack percentage of the year (.282) in the match. “It’s about what can we learn from the last time we played them. How can we learn from that and get better? Even from this past weekend there are areas of our game we are looking to tighten up and improve. We look at every match as a chance to improve.”