Female Athlete of the Year

The PACWEST is pleased to announce Yevgeniya (Jane) Lytvynenko of the VIU Mariners as the Female Athlete of the Year across all sports.

She simply dominated during the regular season helping the Mariners to a first-place finish. She was the only female volleyball athlete to reach the 200 kill plateau collecting 203 in 54 sets played along with 23 service aces. In total she combined for 248 points of total offence for the Mariners during the regular campaign. Over on the defensive side as opposing offences targeted her, she recorded an impressive 108 digs and 22 blocks.

Heading into the PACWEST playoffs Lytvynenko made an incredibly emotional decision to play in the semi-final match against the Capilano Blues despite her family in severe danger in the Ukraine. Even with the stress in her personal life she led the Mariners to the win with 11 kills.

At the CCAA nationals in PEI, she decided to play and showed why she was named the women’s Volleyball Player of the Year. In the quarterfinal against Edouard-Montpetit she led her team with 16 kills helping the Mariners to a four-set victory. Then in the semi-final against Red Deer she was even more dominant tallying 21 kills and had five digs in a three-set sweep pushing her team to the national finale. In the gold medal match she again showed why she’s the top player in the country and an All-Canadian recording a match high 22 kills against the Dougals Royals propelling her team to their fourth straight national gold medal.

She was named the CCAA championship tournament Most Valuable Player with a total of 59 kills in three matches.

Incredibly this is the sixth straight season a player from the Mariners women’s volleyball program has been named the Athlete of the Year across all-sports. Lytvynenko follows in the footsteps of Karoline Tormena who won back-to-back seasons (2019 & 2020), Mikayla Wagner (2018), Megan Rosenlund (2017) and Tylar Turnball (2016).

The PACWEST Male Athlete of the Year across all sports will be announced on Monday.