Madison Hann honoured with U SPORTS Student-Athlete Community Service Award, Olivia Bell named First Team All-Canadian

A pair of Saint Mary’s Huskies were honoured at Wednesday night’s U SPORTS Women’s Volleyball awards banquet in Hamilton, ON.

Third year middle Madison Hann won the Thérèse Quigley Award for Student-Athlete Community Service, while fifth year left side Olivia Bell was named a U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian.

The announcement was made on Wednesday night at the All-Canadian Award Ceremony in Hamilton, the host city of the 2024 U SPORTS Women’s Volleyball Championship, presented by Mikasa.

Madison Hann wins Thérèse Quigley Award for Student-Athlete Community Service

Saint Mary’s Huskies middle Madison Hann is the 2023-24 recipient of the Thérèse Quigley Award, given to a women’s volleyball student-athlete who shows outstanding achievements in three areas: volleyball, academics and community involvement.

A third-year Criminology student from Conquerall Mills, N.S., Hann placed second on her team in total blocks (45) and third in service aces (21). In the classroom, the L’nu student-athlete has held a GPA over 4.15 for three years running, earning Academic All-Canadian and SMU Faculty of Arts Dean’s List status her first two seasons.

In the community, Hann has been just as impressive.

Whether it was volunteering as manager/coach/guardian with the Mi’kmaw Nova Scotia U19 women’s volleyball team for the 2023 North American Indigenous Games or participating in the MotionballU Marathon of Sport event hosted at SMU to raise funds and awareness for Special Olympics, Hann has been more than willing to take on whatever task was needed.

Hann continues to be committed to supporting and advocating for the rights and ongoing issues that people within the Indigenous community face. For the second year in a row, she organized the purchase of orange t-shirts from the local Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre to show support for residential school survivors. This year, she used her own traditional teachings to personally bead more than 20 Every Child Matters pins (over 100 hours of work) to raise $670 – all of which she donated to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society.

Additionally, she will once again participate in the annual Kjipuktuk March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit Persons and Relatives. Hann is a member of both the Saint Mary’s University Indigenous Students Society and the Racialized Student Academic Network.

She also is an attendee to the 7^th Step Society street group meetings, where community members ranging from past and current offenders to workers within the criminal justice system, community volunteers and more come together weekly to reflect and discuss various life topics in order to improve themselves.

Hann joins Hannah Stienburg (2018-19) as the only Huskies to have won the Thérèse Quigley Award.

Olivia Bell named U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian

A fifth year left side hitter from LaHave Islands, N.S., Olivia Bell has been named a 2023-24 U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian. This marks Bell’s third consecutive U SPORTS All-Canadian honour, as she was selected as a Second Team All-Canadian in both 2022-23 and 2021-22.

Bell was named the 2023-24 AUS Most Valuable Player after leading the conference in points (282.5 points), points per set (3.7 points per set), kills (238 kills), and kills per set (3.13 kills per set). She also ranked among the conference leaders in service aces (29 service aces – third), service aces per set (0.38 service aces per set – fourth), digs (218 digs – seventh) and digs per set (2.87 digs per set – ninth).

Bell becomes the first Huskies women’s volleyball player to be selected as a First Team All-Canadian since Rachel Windhorst in the 2014-15 season. She also joins Huskies legends Kerri Smith (2011-12, 2010-11, 2008-09) and Caroline McFarlane (2004-05, 2001-02, 2000-01) as the only Saint Mary’s women’s volleyball players to be selected as an All-Canadian three or more times.

Bell was also selected to the U SPORTS All-Rookie team in 2008-09, and finishes her career as one of the most decorated student-athletes in AUS history as a 3x All-Canadian, 4x AUS All-Star, 1x AUS MVP and 1x AUS Rookie of the Year.

The 2024 U SPORTS Women’s Volleyball Championship gets underway on Friday at the Burridge Gym on the McMaster University campus. The #8 seeded Saint Mary’s Huskies will open the tournament against the top-seed Manitoba Bisons on Friday at 1 p.m. ADT (12 p.m. EDT). Play continues through to the gold medal game, which is set for 5 p.m. ADT (6 p.m. EDT) on Sunday.

View the official championship website.

2023-24 WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL AWARDS & ALL-CANADIANS

Mary Lyons Award (outstanding player of the year): Raya Surinx, Manitoba
Mark Tennant Award (rookie of the year): Abby Guezen, Alberta
Thérèse Quigley Award (student-athlete community service): Madison Hann, Saint Mary’s
Marilyn Pomfret Award (Fox40 Coach of the Year): Michelle Wood, Acadia

First Team All-Canadians

Second Team All-Canadians

All-Rookie Team