Difference maker!
Université de Montréal women's volleyball head coach Olivier Trudel says of Laetitia Tchoualack that she is "nothing short of the best player I've ever coached", that "she has accelerated the rise of our program" and that "she is the main reason we went from a Top 15 team to a Top 5 team at the national level".
Numbers rarely lie. The Carabins kept a 4-8 regular-season record in 2004-05, the year before the powerful five-foot-11 hitter from France enrolled at Montreal to study communication. Since then, they have gone 57-10 in conference play over three campaigns, have reached the CIS championship every year, and this past season captured their first Quebec banner since 1993-94 and claimed a silver medal at the CIS tournament, the best result in team history.
Of course, Tchoualack was no ordinary rookie three years ago when she made an immediate impact on the Carabins. Truth is, few players in history have started their university careers with such an impressive resume.
A native of Paris, Tchoualack played six years of professional ball in her home country before moving to Canada, capturing the European Cup with Cannes Racing Club in 2002, winning three national championships and captaining Evreux Volleyball Club of Division 1 in her final season overseas. She was also a member of the French youth, junior and senior national teams from 1996-2004.
No wonder her transition to Canadian university volleyball seemed effortless with three selections as a first-team QSSF all-star in as many campaigns, three nods as an all-Canadian, including two on the first squad, a pair of Quebec MVP titles and, of course, CIS player-of-the-year honours this season.
"When I'm out recruiting, I often have players ask me if Laetitia will still be there. The younger players want to play with her," says Trudel.
The Carabins came "oh so close" to a first CIS title this year, enjoying three championship points before dropping a five-set decision to UBC in the national final. No doubt Trudel knows all too well that should Tchoualack stick around for one more season, adding a few key recruits to the mix might be all his team needs to get over the final hump.
Tchoualack’s Accomplishments: |
