The First Round NCAA West Regional matchup between GNAC foes #7 Central Washington and #2 Simon Fraser provided yet another five set, action-packed game. During regular season, Central Washington won the opening game (25-23, 20-25, 16-25, 25-17, 17-15) and SFU won the last game of the regular season (25-20, 25-18, 22-25, 21-25, 15-4) and both teams finished with 14-4 records and a share of the GNAC Championship. CWU would win the first and third sets, but SFU would respond in the second and fourth sets to force the fifth and deciding set. CWU would end up taking the final set 15-11 to win the match (30-28, 20-25, 25-21, 21-25, 15-11) and advance to play Fresno Pacific and end SFU's 2025 season.

Senior Davida Hill would lead the way for the Red Leafs with 18 kills and 12 digs, with fellow senior and ACVA First Team All-Regional Natalie Lemoine-Sells contributing 13 kills. Sophomore Jayden Armstrong provide a spark off the bench with 11 kills and .400 hitting percentage. GNAC Setter of the Year Eva Person provided 38 assists and ends their career with 3,074 total assists. On the defensive side, Macyn Unger led the team with 26 digs, with Megan Hawkins right behind with 21.

Central Washington was led by AVCA & D2 CAA First Team All-Regional Scottie Ellsworth, Ella Bines, and Kailey Willsey who finished with 19, 15, and 14 kills respectively. They were set up by the duo of Kayleigh-Shay Chang and Addie Allen who had a combined 54 assists. Libero Brooklyn Parker had a game high 29 digs.
 

After back-to-back kills by Hill, SFU would jump out to an early 4-2 lead in the first set. The set would consist of mini runs by both teams and SFU was never able to build a lead greater than 5 points. Ella McVittie would deliver two service aces to extend the lead to 18-13, but yet again CWU would mount a comeback. At set point for SFU after a CWU service error to make the score 24-21, the Red Leaf's would be unable to put away the pesky Wildcats who kept clawing back. With CWU leading 25-24, Armstrong would come in and deliver three straight points for the Red Leafs, but with each kill came a response from CWU. CWU would go on to take the first set 30-28.

SFU would lead the entire second set as Hill would get the first kill of the set off a set from Person. After a Nina Kovacevic kill, Senior Ava Khademi would serve up consecutive aces to help stretch the Red Leafs lead to 14-6. Then with a 24-20 lead, a big block from Logan Remington and Lemoine-Sells would close out the set for SFU to tie it up at one set apiece.

CWU would jump out to an early lead and rack up three aces early in the set to take a 12-8 lead before a SFU timeout. Out of the timeout, Remington and Hill kills would cut the lead to 13-10 for CWU. The two teams would trade blocks and attack errors, and force another SFU timeout with the CWU lead stretching to 18-13. A quick short set would lead to a kill by CWU, but with their backs against the wall, Remington would get a kill and that would be followed by an Unger service ace to cut the lead to 22-18 for CWU. SFU would fight off two set points, but Ellsworth would deliver a kill to win the set 25-21 and put CWU up two sets to one.
 

Ellsworth would start off the set with their 13^th kill of the match to give CWU the early lead. The teams would continue to trade points and a kill by Lemoine-Sells would tie the set up at 7-7.  With McVittie on the service line, SFU would build up a 15-11 lead and force a CWU timeout. Out of the timeout, McVittie would pick up their fourth ace of the game, as SFU would continue to build their lead and force another quick timeout from CWU after a kill by Hill to take a 17-11 lead. Following a mini run by CWU, Armstrong continued to be a force off the bench with multiple kills to get the lead to 21-17. Following another Lemoine-Sells kill to set up set point, CWU would fight off two set point before a kill by Kovacevic would send the game to a fifth and deciding set.

Lemoine-Sells would get SFU on the board first in the fifth set with a kill, followed by another service ace by Unger to give SFU the early 2-0 lead. A big solo block by Lemoine-Sells would give SFU a 3-1 lead and put McVittie back on the service line where they would deliver yet another ace. Following a response from CWU, Armstrong would come off the bench and delivered a monster kill and 6-3 lead for SFU. Following a timeout, CWU would produce five straight points to take the lead 8-6 into the switchover. SFU would continue to battle back and take a 11-10 lead off consecutive Lemoine-Sells kills. CWU would respond with a kill, an ace, and another kill to force a SFU timeout, down 13-11. A bad serve reception and an attack error would give CWU the two points they needed to win the set and match and end SFU's 2025 season.
 

---

2025 Season Recap

SEASON OF BESTS

• SFU Volleyball finishes the 2025 season with a 20-5 overall record (.800), their best finish in the NCAA era
• SFU was GNAC co-champions for the first time, sharing the title with Central Washington, Alaska, and Alaska Fairbanks who all finished with a 14-4 regular season record
• Logan Remington set a GNAC match record with 18 blocks in a game against San Francisco St. on Sept 9, 2025
• Three athletes (Person, Lemoine-Sells, Remington) won their first ever All-West Regional Awards.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

• SFU had five athletes win GNAC Player of the Week
  • Logan Remington – Defensive Player of the Week – Sept 9, 2025
  • Eva Person – Offensive Player of the Week – Oct 27, 2025
  • Macyn Unger – Defensive Player of the Week – Oct 27, 2025
  • Nina Kovacevic – Offensive Player of the Week – Nov 3, 2025
  • Natalie Lemoine-Sells – Offensive Player of the Week – Nov 24, 2025
• Kovacevic took home AVCA Player of the Week honors on Nov 4, 2025

SPECTACULAR SENIORS

• Senior setter Eva Person was named GNAC Setter of the year and All-GNAC First team for the second year in the row and was named a AVCA All-West Region Honorable Mention for the first time in their career. Person ends their career with 3,074 total assists, second all-time at SFU behind Julia Tays who finished with 3,895. Person was named the GNAC Freshman of the year in 2022
• Natalie Lemoine-Sells ended their career with a career season, earning AVCA All-West Region First Team and All-GNAC First Team selections. The only other SFU player to be selected to the AVCA All-West Region First Team is Brooke Dexter in 2024. Lemoine-Sells had 318 kills during the regular season and ranked sixth in the GNAC with 3.31 kills per set (15th in the West Region) and 10th in the GNAC with an attack percentage of .258
• Davida Hill was named a GNAC All-Conference Honorable Mention and had previously been named to the GNAC All-Conference First Team in 2024. Hill ends their career with 635 career kills and 450 digs after playing 81 matches for the Red Leafs
• Ava Khademi, mainly playing as a serving sub the last two years after coming in as Libero, would collect another 25 services aces in 2025 and finish their career with 77 in 300 sets (88 matches) played for SFU. Khademi also added in 297 career digs

SOPHMORES STEPING UP
The quartet of Megan Hawkins, Jayden Armstrong, Nina Kovacevic, and Logan Remington all took big steps up from their freshman seasons

• Megan Hawkins more than doubled their kills with 285 kills in 2025 compared to 139 in 2024. They had a high of 25 kills vs Alaska on October 11, 2025, the 4^th highest in a game in the GNAC this season. Hawkins was also delivered 45 aces on the season, with a GNAC match high of 9 coming vs Alaska on November 6, 2025.
• After only seeing action in 18 sets in their freshman year, Jayden Armstrong played in 84 sets in 2025 and collected 161 kills. Armstrong's hitting percentage was huge down the stretch for SFU, collecting 8 kills on .467 hitting percentage in the final regular season game and then 11 kills with a .400 hitting percentage in their season finale, with each kill seeming to come when SFU needed it most.
• Nina Kovacevic had to miss the first few games of the season due to injury but made their presence felt once back on the court. Kovacevic took home AVCA Player of the Week honors on Nov 4, 2025, which is given to the best player in NCAA Div II that week. Kovacevic finished the season with 114 kills on a .353 hitting percentage and 66.0 total blocks.
• Logan Remington made their presence felt early in the season, collecting a GNAC match record 18 blocks in just the second game of the season. Remington would remain consistent all year long, finishing the season with 133 kills and .374 hitting percentage and 134.0 blocks for the 2025 season. This would earn Remington a spot on the D2 CAA All-Region Second Team.

RELIABLE JUNIORS

• After topping 400+ digs last season, Macyn Unger collected another 453 digs this season and now has 1,259 for their career. This sits Unger third in SFU history, behind Alison McKay (2,094) and Bianca Te (1,436). Unger also collected 35 services aces and now sits with 86 in their career.
• Ella McVittie mainly came into the games to serve and be a backrow setter and contributed 207 set assists in 2025. A season high of 18 assists came in their season finale game on December 4, 2025 against CWU. McVittie was also second on the team in service aces, with 38 service aces. 

COACHING STAFF PUTTING ATHLETES IN RIGHT SPOT

• A year after GNAC Athlete of Year Brooke Dexter graduated, you could expect a slight decline in team performance; not at SFU. Gina Schmidt and the coaching staff continue to develop and put their athletes in the right positions and it showed from the very start of the season where the Red Leafs won 6 games in a row with 5 against ranked opponents. Schmidt boasts a 194-125 (0.608) record over 12 seasons with the Red Leafs.

That wraps up the 2025 season for SFU Volleyball and we already cannot wait for 2026.

--