College of the Rockies' women's Avalanche volleyball program has signed Lauren Penney, a local 5 ft. 8 in. outside hitter from Cranbrook, British Columbia for the 2022/2023 season.

Penney is currently a grade 12 student at Mount Baker Secondary School. She has played the sport since she was in grade 5, and in her grade 7 year she began playing club volleyball for the East Kootenay Volleyball Club.  Penney has had many opportunities to develop her skills over the years, having been involved with the Kootenay Regional Excellence Centre, which evolved to the Volleyball Canada Regional Excellence Program for five years. She was also a zone representative at the BC Cup.

While attending the College, Penney will be enrolled in the UVIC/EK Teacher Education program, held in partnership with the University of Victoria.

"I chose College of the Rockies so I could play for my community, while still being surrounded by my friends and family," Penney said. "My previous experiences with Bryan as a coach have shown me that he and the assistant coaches, and the other players, will help further develop my skills."

"We are excited about bringing in so many local recruits for the 2022/23 season and Lauren is not exception," Avalanche women's coach Bryan Fraser said. "She has been working hard the past few years to get her game to the next level and I have high expectations for her continued development. Our program has many strong athletes who push each other to be better every day and Lauren will benefit from this tremendously. With her big academic aspirations and her work ethic and determination, Lauren is going to fit right in with our programs values and expectations."

PACWEST competition for the 2021/22 season has now concluded. We look forward to another exciting season in fall 2022.  Learn more about College of the Rockies' Volleyball program at: goavalanche.ca.