“Just seeing my name up on there and realizing ‘wow, I’m actually on this team’, is really surreal and exciting,” Oke said Tuesday from Memorial University. “Playing university volleyball was a huge goal of mine and I’m so thankful I get to do it at Memorial in my home province.”
Oke, who was on the radar of coach John Slauenwhite for a number of years as she starred with the Corner Brook Titans on the provincial scene, committed to the Memorial program after she graduated from high school and is expected to be an impact player with her six-foot-three frame.
Oke has been busy hitting the hardwood with her new teammates for a week now in anticipation of opening weekend in the Atlantic University Sport when the Sea-Hawks host the University of Moncton Sept. 3 in the home opener for the 2017-2018 AUS campaign.
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Oke, who calls Massey Drive home, said she’s having fun on the floor and learning lots of new things so she figures she made the right choice when she decided to pursue volleyball at a higher level with the Sea-Hawks.
She likes the group assembled by coach Slauenwhite for this season. She believes it’s a hard-working group focused on a common goal so she thinks things will be just fine once they get some familiarity on the floor.
“We’re all just really willing to work the hardest we’ve ever worked in our lives to get where we want to be,” she said.
Oke showed she could handle herself on the high school volleyball scene for years and her hard work earned her a spot on the 2017 Canada Summer Games female volleyball team that represented the province in Winnipeg this past summer.
Another level of play.
Another challenge.
This girl is ready and eager to take on whatever the AUS has to offer.