Dalhousie men’s volleyball is hopeful for the future despite winless season
Rebuilding year builds experience for team with 10 freshmen
The 2025-26 season was one of turnover for the Dalhousie University men’s volleyball team, finishing the year with a 0-16 record.
Five upperclassmen graduated in 2025, including leading point getter and outside hitter Michael Donovan. This season, Dan Ota, the Tigers’ head coach of 27 years, brought in a range of recruits, but said it takes time to rebuild the team culture.
“It’s always disappointing when you’re not winning games,” Ota said. “I think we knew going into the season, considering how competitive our league was … that it was going to be tough for us in terms of winning matches.”
Ota relied on upper-year players to help bring the new players up to speed, but these players were stepping into bigger roles on the court themselves, which Ota said put pressure on the returning players.
“Everybody was dealing with so many things that were new,” he said.
Jacob Oyler is one of the upper-year players who found their footing in this new role. He was second on the team in points in the 2024-25 season and became team captain after Donovan departed. In the new players, he tried to instill Ota’s mentality of showing up to the gym ready to improve every day, despite wins or losses.
“If you look at our record this year, we definitely went through it,” Oyler said. “But I don’t think the record really shows the amount of work.”
The men’s volleyball team competes in a unique league structure compared to other Dalhousie varsity teams. Most teams play in the Atlantic University Sport conference or another Maritime league. In men’s volleyball, though, Dalhousie and the University of New Brunswick are the only U Sports teams from the Atlantic provinces, so they play in Quebec’s student league, the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec.
“What they did for a couple of years was UNB would just play Dal 16 times,” Oyler said. “I’m not here for that. I enjoy the challenge of playing these older and more experienced teams. [Now we’re] just trying to find a way to win against those teams.”
Playing in Quebec presents a “tremendous” challenge, according to Ota, because some student athletes start university later than in other provinces, due to CEGEP — Quebec’s post-secondary program that precedes university.
“When 17 and 18-year-olds are coming into a league with guys in their late 20s, you can’t bridge that gap in one year,” he said.
Ota said he’s enjoyed seeing his players work hard and gain experience this season, adding that they’ve grasped their responsibilities on the team.
With the season over, Ota said the team is looking to improve and build its talent heading into next season. Next year’s recruits include top Ontario talent and a hometown hero currently playing for the Tigers’ U18 squad.
“The goals that the guys are going to be pushing towards in the off-season are, ‘Let’s have a team that can realistically think about being a playoff team again,’” Ota said.
