Intramural Volleyball at VIU

Playoff night of fall 2024 intramural volleyball at VIU.
01.23.25| Vol. 56, No. 4 | Article
I once believed I would make it to university on a sports scholarship. I played all the sports offered at my small, private Christian high school in Maple Ridge, BC. I was quite the athlete and volleyball was my favourite. I thought I had a chance of being scouted to play on a varsity team.
In classic sports movie style, I sustained an injury while playing volleyball in my senior year. I dislocated my thumb and was benched in recovery for the latter half of the school year.
It felt career-ending at the time, as I was out for the remainder of the season and had no opportunity to be scouted.

My high school senior girls volleyball team and my injury.
Since a sports scholarship seemed out of the equation, volleyball quickly moved down on my list of priorities. Having graduated high school in the peak of 2020 (need I say more), I took two gap years to focus on staying healthy, saving money, and figuring out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Organized sports took up all of my free time in high school. Now, I had space to nurture my other hobbies. I loved music and spent time learning guitar and writing songs. I allotted time to discovering new music, and I went to concerts once it was safe to do so. I started journaling every day and reading more novels and more non-fiction.
After a year and a half of laying low and honing in my passions, I’d made enough money to go to university. I started exploring my options.
One day my mother asked if I’d heard of Vancouver Island University.
I had once, but briefly. An old highschool friend of mine was enrolled for a semester before the pandemic forced her home.
“You should look into it,” my mom said. “I think you’d like the campus.”
My mother had just returned from a trip to Nanaimo. What brought her there? Volleyball.
My younger brother’s team had made it to provincials and the tournament took place at the harbour city’s university. She’d wandered around campus and could see me–someone from a small high school–doing well at a university with similar class sizes.
“You should see if they have a writing program or something,” she said. My late grandfather Art Sorensen was a journalist, and I felt eager to follow in his footsteps.
So I applied for a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Creative Writing and Journalism on VIU’s Nanaimo campus.
While filling out my application, I recalled a comment I got from a high school teacher who said my writing was strong. I didn’t even know I could go to school for writing.
In the fall of 2022, I packed up my things and made the move to Nanaimo. I spent my first semester settling into a new town and life as a student. My life was blossoming with new people and experiences.
But being back in a school environment made me miss organized sports. It was so easy being a teenage athlete! There were parents to coach practices and tote players around town for games. All I had to do was show up.
Although I spent my time in university engaging in creative endeavors, I still enjoyed being active, and I missed playing the sport I loved most—volleyball.
So I joined intramural sports at VIU in my second semester. I was thrilled at the opportunity to keep up with volleyball in a low-commitment setting.
Intramural sports at VIU offers semester-long leagues of volleyball, indoor soccer, and basketball. It’s open to members of the community as well. Players meet one night per week and play three 20-minute matches against other teams in their pools.
Monday night means volleyball. Each pool or skill level has its own one-hour time slot between 5:30 and 10:30pm. The higher a team’s level, the earlier they play.
Since I was new to VIU and hadn’t made enough friends to form a team of my own, I joined a team of singles, called “individual teams”. Individual teams are made up of single players who don’t have their own team, to form one and play together for the semester.
The first intramural volleyball night I played was nerve-wracking. I wasn’t sure what to expect—I’d come from a very small high school with an even smaller skill pool. I was a strong player in that environment, but I wasn’t sure how I’d match up to others here.
Once I got playing, I realized that everyone was there to have fun (for the most part). While things did get competitive, people were there to socialize and play volleyball. No one really cared if you dumped a ball or served into the net a couple of times.

My high school senior girls volleyball team and my injury.

Individual Team A, 2025.
Since 2023, I’ve played intramurals every semester up until now. I keep going back because at $30 per semester, it’s an affordable way to engage in an organized sport. My love of volleyball was satiated, and I still had time to be a student and focus on my other hobbies. Best of all, I made new friends every season.
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One of my favourite parts of playing intramurals was recognizing people from classes or from around campus and thinking, “I didn’t know they played volleyball!”
One of my favourite parts of playing intramurals was recognizing people from classes or from around campus and thinking, “I didn’t know they played volleyball!”
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I interviewed a few players on the closing night of the fall 2024 season. It was the playoffs, and one pool of teams had just come away from their final matches before winter break.
Digital Media and Marketing student Medea Torgerson has played two semesters of intramural volleyball at VIU. She joined the intramural league because some people she played volleyball with in high school invited her to join their team, Spike Szn.
“I really enjoy playing sports and being active and getting out there, so this is a great opportunity,” Torgerson said. “Plus, I get to meet other university students too. I didn’t know half of my team. It’s really cool that I met four new people.”
Our interview took place the first week of December. “It’s a good way to move and release stress from school, especially during exam week,” she said. “Glad to be here tonight!”
Torgerson shared some words of encouragement for students interested in playing. “Just give it a shot,” she said, “and if you can’t get a team together, you can sign up for individuals.”
“I look forward to Monday nights,” Torgerson said. “Get out there and sign up!”
While the spring 2025 volleyball league just started its first of 10 sessions this Monday, January 20, students can still register online or in person at the VIU Gymnasium at time of writing.
Second-year student Tristan Bautista recently joined Spike Szn after three semesters of intramural volleyball. He’s played volleyball since grade seven.
I asked Bautista why he plays intramurals. “To socialize and meet new people, to have more friends, and to be more active,” he said.
Bautista encourages others to join intramurals because of the cold. “It will help you be more active, especially with winter. More likely, we’re all just going to be in our houses. So playing intramurals will help us be more active.”
Naturally, Bautista finds the league’s location convenient for students on VIU’s Nanaimo campus. “After class you can just come here,” he said.
I’d even encourage those who haven’t played much to join. It’s a positive, low-stakes environment to learn a sport.
Although I might not have made it to university on a sports scholarship like I’d initially dreamed, I discovered other passions of mine that may not have been possible if I’d continued to put all of my time into a sport.
Playing intramurals helped me realize I can still be satisfied with spending some of my time on the court. Being an athlete was and is part of my identity, but it’s just that—one part of a much grander whole.

Elke Sorensen
Elke is a third-year Creative Writing and Digital Media Studies student. She hosts at CHLY 101.7FM and has multiple non-fiction publications in Cabin Radio, The Vintage Seeker, and Healthy Debate, plus a poetry publication in Portal. Elke is also a musician and has played at The Vault in Nanaimo. Her music is available to stream on all platforms. Elke hopes to continue her work in broadcast and is currently working on a weird horror short story collection about canines.