TORONTO — The Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold women's volleyball team took a tough blow over the summer. Six seniors, most of whom were consistent starters for the squad, graduated and left their Bold playing careers behind them.

Each of those players was a crucial piece to the Bold's roster last season: setter Jasmine Safar led the team in assists, outside hitter Scarlett Gingera led the team in kills and was named an OUA Third-Team All-Star, libero Mary Rioflorido was named Team MVP and finished second in the program's all-time dig rankings, and Kylie Ferguson, Jia Lonardi, and Sarah Zonneveld all played key roles for the team both on and off the court.

Five of those six players also appeared in 48 or more sets on the season. The Bold didn't just lose talent, but experience as well. 

This batch of seniors was the second of two groups to graduate in back-to-back years: between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, five different seniors moved on from the program.

The drastic change in the roster over the past two years has been without a doubt a big-time hit to the team, but Head Coach Dustin Reid likes to look at it as a new beginning.

"The people who graduated over the past two years arrived at TMU during the pandemic…the aspects of what the pandemic meant to being a student-athlete defined most of their career," explained Reid, "so this [year's] group is as much a fresh start as you can really have in a program."

None of the athletes remaining on the team this year had any experience being a student-athlete during the pandemic – their longest tenured players, Tyra Krapp & Elise Pridmore, are only in their third years of eligibility. In that way, the Bold are entering a new era led by a set of players that have gone through a completely different university experience.

With this young, new-look team, Reid faces the unfamiliar challenge of defining a culture and identity. 

"It's the youngest team we've had at TMU in women's volleyball in well over a decade, so trying to reframe as the coach what we want to try to be as a program, and where we want to go in the years to come is a freeing opportunity," said Reid.

The "rebuild", so to speak, that the team will be embarking on over the course of this season doesn't just involve new players. It involves everything from their practice and training programs to their comraderie off of the court.

"We've been focusing on trying to define what we want our culture to look like," explained Reid, "what we want our day-to-day to look like, what we want our training environment to look like, what we want development to look like for our players, and at the same time how we want to compete as a group [on the court]."

All of those little things piece together to create what Reid hopes to be a competitive team this season. 

The Bold's schedule has been intense since the start of the year, tightly packing together both practices and a whopping 12 preseason games in the last month that included trips to Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Waterloo.

"We've asked a lot of our players in terms of the physical, mental, and emotional commitment to be on the team," admitted Reid, "I've been really proud of how they've handled that…of how far we've been able to come in a short time."

As the team has worked hard to discover their new identity, they've also discovered how to lead one another. 

Because of the Bold's youth, they don't necessarily have the presence of a "veteran" on the team. In most scenarios, that would be a cause for trouble – Reid's squad has already adjusted accordingly, though.

"We've tried to talk about leadership as being essential, but being more of a verb than a noun," he said. 

Through taking action and practicing positive habits, the squad has been able to overcome their lack of experience and create a group leadership of sorts where all of the players hold each other accountable.

"I feel [losing six seniors over the summer] has made us all step up as a team," said second-year outside hitter Hannah Bellai, "being a younger team has turned out to benefit us as we are all taking powerful leadership initiatives and everyone is pushing the competitive nature on our team."

Bellai was a key piece in both the Bold's offensive pressure at the net and their serve reception. She ranked second on the team in kills per set, total kills, and total points, and third in digs per set last season.

"I find attacking is such an exciting and thrilling part of the game," she said, "Although I also take pride in my serve receive abilities. Passing dimes off of tough serves to set the team up for success thrills me all the same."

Bellai isn't the only one preaching the "team leadership" mentality, though–every single player on the roster pushes one another to get better every day and give it their all on the court.

Third-year Kaiya Krahn, one of the more experienced players on the roster, expressed a similar mindset to Bellai:

"I find that most of our team provides leadership and support in their own ways…everyone makes it their responsibility to hold each other accountable, which works out very well as we lean on each other," said Krahn.

The outside hitter has drastically improved over the summer–it's hard to get better than her 2.00 kills per set from last season, which ranked her third on the team, but her hard work has resulted in her taking quite the step up this year.

"My mindset this year is to work on the parts of my game that need the most work so I can become a strong player in those skills," she explained.

"It's rare that a third-year player would be the one with the most experience on-court, but she's shown this year that she's benefitted from that time and she's had a tremendous preseason," praised Reid.

Whereas Krahn and Bellai have led the team with their statistics on the court, the more experienced Krapp and Pridmore are impacting the team with their guidance. The pair of third-years have taken it upon themselves to create a strong sense of trust with the younger players on the roster:

"I'm always striving to be someone that my teammates can trust on and off the court," said Krapp, "I hope that what I've learned during my time as a varsity athlete can support them on their own journeys."

"Since we have such a young team, it's important for everybody to step up," she added, "regardless if you're a [third-year] or brand new to the team, and I think we've created a dynamic where players feel comfortable doing so no matter their role."

That level of competitiveness right off of the bat can be scary for some first years, but not for the Bold's pair of freshmn setters in Sadie Bird and Mattea Di Bacco.

Despite their youth, they've been asked a lot so far in their OUA careers–as the only two setters on the roster, both Bird and Di Bacco will be playing big minutes for the Bold this season. Reid has been impressed with their ability to handle such a big role:

"They've had a lot of work and a fair amount of responsibility thrust upon them…both [Di Bacco] and [Bird] are ready to work every day," said Reid, "I wouldn't see them as competing [for minutes], but trying to support each other."

Di Bacco joins the team coming off of multiple seasons with the well-renowned Defensa Volleyball Club, where she led her team to a top-four finish at the Volleyball Canada 2025 Youth Nationals in Edmonton. That experience against high-level competition will help her transition smoothly into OUA play this season.

Another young player on the roster who will bolster an important role will be libero Livia Davenport. With Rioflorido's graduation, the second-year will be receiving the bulk of minutes at libero this season, one of the most important positions on the court. 

"Last season was a really important one for [Davenport]," explained Reid, "she really wanted to get to work and improve, and try to find some opportunities to play. We were really quite patient with her, and we wanted her to position herself to be the best player she could this season…it's been incredible to see how much growth we've seen in [Davenport] from last year to this year."

Despite seeing limited time on the court last season, Davenport stayed patient and worked incredibly hard to improve her game. This season, she'll get to see the fruits of her labour as the team's starting libero.

Davenport's defensive abilities as a libero allow the Bold to counter-attack from serves and attacks, but it's also important for the team to shut down any pressure at the net–that's where second-year Ayla Cross is at her best.

The middle led the squad in blocks as a freshman last season, totalling 41.0 over her 47 sets. Her ability to deter opponents at the net is key for the Bold's defence. 

"I was definitely very happy with my block defence last year, and it's something I think I can continue to contribute to the team," said Cross, "as a middle blocker, there's a lot of pressure to end the rally at the net. Success in blocking in something I believe is a big part of my personal play and pride."

With Davenport, Cross, and others such as Bellai and Krapp with their serve receptions holding things down defensively, it allows the team to focus on their offensive aggression–something that Reid has been drilling into them during training.

"What I'm most hopeful about with this team is that we can play a really aggressive style, and that we can be an exciting team to watch," he said.

Despite the youth of the squad, their camaraderie and communal accountability allows them to bring a high level of competition into every game they play. Training hard in practice results in them playing hard for each and every point–something that, win or lose, is a fantastic quality in any team.

"Playing competitively has been a big focus for us this year so far, and we have a lot of personalities on this team that are all driving that competitiveness in different ways," said Krapp, "I am more than confident that this is a team capable of competing at a high level, despite how inexperienced we may seem."

"I am very confident in our team's competitive ability this season," added Bellai, "even though we're young, I feel that it makes us more aggressive."

The Bold may have lost a lot of talent over the summertime, but that doesn't mean they're down and out. When a door closes, a window opens, and that window leads to a young, confident TMU team that boasts incredible comradery, accountability, and competitiveness. 

This new-look squad will be bringing their best efforts on the court night in and night out–and because they're so young, Bold fans will get to watch them do just that for years to come.

The squad kicks off their season on Thursday, October 23 against the York Lions for TMU's annual "Block Party" event. First serve is set for 6 p.m. at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, and students can enter the game for free with their OneCards.