Aidan Lea

Fresh off completing her first season with the UBCO Heat Women’s Volleyball team, Aidan Lea has emerged as an offensive star and one of the club's leaders.

The 19-year-old played a huge role in the Heat’s playoff push after injuries sidelined two of the squad’s best offensive players. Lea was asked to step up in UBCO’s series against the University of Calgary and the 6 foot 5-inch middle did just that, leading the club to victory with 28 and a half points in the series.

It comes as no surprise that the Kelowna native was nominated for UBCO's Most Outstanding Athlete Most Outstanding Athlete of the Year after leading the entire Canada West division in hitting percentage (.350), which also set a new Heat record for highest hitting percentage in school history

While the Heat eventually missed their chance to reach Nationals after losing to the University of Alberta in the Canada West final four, the team took great pride in their resilient win in the series against the University of Calgary Dinos.

“Our weekend against Calgary was pretty up and down and very exciting,” said Lea while taking a break from studying for finals at UBCO.

“Losing the first night shook us up a bit but it helped us realize what it was going to take to win the series and going into the second night we lost our top point scorer right off the bat, so we really had to dig in there and show what we were made of.”

After losing two starting seniors including the team’s top scorer and starting setter, the team rose to the challenge and beat the Dinos in the final game of the series to advance to the Canada West Final Four.

“In the third game, knowing we were without our starting setter as well and to come away with the win was probably the highlight of our entire season,” said Lea.

“It was a real chance to prove what we are made of and what we had been working on all season.”

The gutsy performance wasn’t lost on the Heat’s Head Coach Steve Manuel, who has seen Lea develop as a player since her early days with Kelowna Volleyball Club.

“During the series in Calgary we suffered a couple injuries to key players mid way through the weekend and Aidan was one of our players that stepped up and really provided the offence that we needed to win that playoff round.” said Manuel.

Even at the young age of 19, the sport of volleyball has already taken Lea on an interesting journey. After being heavily recruited by schools in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and even NCAA juggernaut Ohio State, Lea decided to take her talents to the University of Colorado in Boulder.

“I was playing in colorado for 4 academic semesters so like a year and a half,” said Lea.

“There was a coaching change and it ended up not being an ideal environment for me. But I became more interested in playing for a smaller school just knowing what it was like being more of another number in a massive athletic machine as opposed to a name and a face.”

Lea chose to come back to the Okanagan because of her familiarity with the program and Head Coach Manuel. UBCO was happy to have Lea who went on to set an offensive record for the school in her first season.

“It was a great addition to add Aidan to the mix, she had played with the Jr. Heat Club and we were very excited when she decided to come back home to play for us,” said Manuel.

Up next is a trip to Richmond this summer to try out for Canada’s National Volleyball team. It’s a team that usually reserved for professionals but Lea’s talent has proven she can compete with the best.

“The NAtional Team’s training program typically takes 28 girls and then you train throughout the summer,” said Lea.

“It’s largely based on girls who are playing professionally and the reason I decided to try out was because last year they didn’t have a lot of middles try out so there was actually some CIS girls who made it.”

Even with lofty athletic aspirations, Lea takes her academic pursuits seriously. She is currently working on her International Relations major at UBCO and has big ideas for what she could possibly do career wise in the future.

“I have an interest in going to grad school and studying international law,” said Lea.

“My dad, step mom and brother are all living abroad in Abu Dhabi, so I definitely have an interest in working abroad in the future.”

For now though, Lea is content to focus on her athletic pursuits this summer with Canada’s National Team and preparing for the Heat’s season next fall.