Talent in the Transfer Portal Benefits Volleyball’s New Roster

By Paige Apps, Sports Reporter

Another season has started for the Canisius volleyball team, which means new faces and new spaces to fill, after losing several of their key contributors to graduation or the transfer portal. However, as the transfer portal takes, it also gives.

“We were able to bring in some players who have a lot of experience… They have really, really high volleyball IQs and a lot of experience playing for collegiately successful teams,” Head Coach Tom Hanna commented.

One of the new faces, Julia Lenik, a redshirt sophomore from Poland, brings experience from playing at Towson in the 2023 and 2024 seasons, a top 60 program. Not only that, but she was a member of the Polish National Team which finished in third place at the European Youth Olympic Games. According to Hanna, she knows how to ask the right questions and take advantage of opportunities thrown her way.

“She’ll do things in practice. She went up last week and the set was a little wide, so she’ll just hit left handed. And she actually went after the block and took the block left-handed,” said Hanna when speaking on Lenik’s strengths. “It’s one thing to hit left handed with righty footwork. It’s another thing to intentionally go try to score off the block and then actually do it.”

With building a new roster comes challenges, and the biggest concern for Coach Hanna heading into the preseason was how fast the team could get on the same page. With a bench of six returners from last season and seven new team members, not including sophomore Emma Isroff who joined the blue and gold last spring, it’s challenging to know how well the team chemistry will flow on the court.

Hanna explained, “Getting the group together…took about three days. It was bizarre. The group is great, they’re great together and they’re very supportive of each other, especially in that transition where the new kids have to learn how we do things.”

Along with the incoming transfers, returning senior Ella Bourque has been dominating the court so far during the nonconference portion of the season. Bourque was named the Jersey Mike's MAAC Volleyball Co-Setter of the Week on Tuesday after collecting a total of 110 assists in this past weekend’s invite at UAlbany.

“We’ve got [Ella] back to where she is, in my opinion, hopefully the premier setter in the conference. Bella [Mosquera] has been very good in the last two weeks, Kalia Reisma as well. We did a lot of work with that group of three in the spring to be able to score in non-perfect situations. We were good at that in the spring, but we weren’t playing anybody else. But we’re good, being able to do that is going to be really important,” said Hanna.

The team heads to the Bearcat Invitational at Binghamton this Friday and Saturday, and end the nonconference season at Le Moyne for a midweek matchup next Wednesday.

Photo courtesy of Canisius Athletics