The U Sports women's volleyball championship is an annual tournament that features the top eight women's volleyball teams from among competing Canadian

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the C ...

. 11 games are played over a period of three days culminating in a national championship being awarded. The championship trophy, first awarded in 1977, features a two-wheeled oxcart, symbolizing the pioneer era on the Red River in

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. The 2023 champions are the

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who have also won the most championships with a total of 13, including six in a row from 2008 to 2013.

History

While intercollegiate volleyball had been played in Canada since 1947, championships had been played for conference titles only. In 1969, the Canadian Women's Interuniversity Athletic Union (CWIAU) was formed (a precursor to today's U Sports organization) to provide a regulatory body for national competition. For the 1969–1970 season, the

Calgary Dinos The Calgary Dinos are the athletic teams that represent the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. They were known as the "Dinosaurs" but usually referred to as the "Dinos" until 1999, when the name was officially shortened. Some of its venue ...

were named the first unofficial champions. The first official champions were the Manitoba Bisonettes, who were crowned following the 1970–1971 season after they defeated the

Toronto Varsity Blues The Toronto Varsity Blues is the intercollegiate sports program at the University of Toronto. Its 43 athletic teams regularly participate in competitions held by Ontario University Athletics and U Sports. The Varsity Blues traces its founding to ...

in four sets. While full historical championship results are not readily available, the championship was initially a round-robin tournament where the teams with the best records would then play for the championship. This was changed for the 1983 championship when the tournament changed to

single-elimination A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. The 2020 and 2021 championship tournaments were cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Format

The championship currently consists of an eight-team tournament, with champions from each of the four conferences, one host, an additional

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team, and two additional

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teams. While the berths for the conference champions and host remain consistent year-to-year, the other three invitees can change based on the host's conference and the competitive landscape in U Sports. The championship takes place over three days and features 11 games, with teams seeded 1–8. Teams are ranked by a committee as well as by the ELO ranking used to determine weekly Top 10 rankings nationally. Conference champions can be ranked no lower than 6th place. The team ranked 1st plays the 8th ranked team, 2nd plays 7th, 3rd plays 6th, and 4th plays 5th in the quarter-finals. To ensure common rest times, teams are not re-seeded after the first round, so the winner of 1v8 plays the winner of 4v5 and the winner of 2v7 plays the winner of 3v6. There is also a consolation bracket to determine the third-place winner (bronze medalist) and fifth-place winner. The gold medal game is the last game played in the tournament.

Results

Round Robin Format (1971–1982)

Single Elimination Format (1983–present)

Top 3 finishes table

The following table includes all known first, second, and third-place finishes, as indicated above. Prior to 1983, there were no third-place finishes, and the second-place finish was the loser of the championship game.

External links

U Sports Women's Volleyball Championship

References

{{Major women's sport leagues in North America U Sports trophies National volleyball leagues Volleyball in Canada U Sports volleyball