HSB25: After her first taste of competitive volleyball during COVID, Maya Bukovcan emerges as NCAA & Team Canada player

By Farrah Philpot

COVID meant a dead end to many youths’ participation in sport, and while the virtual version sapped Maya Bukovcan’s enthusiasm for one sport, it ultimately launched the start of another journey that’s led her to play NCAA volleyball at High Point University.

Bukovcan was in Grade 7 and focused on dance at the time when the pandemic hit.

“Online dance through Zoom really kind of just killed my love for the sport,” recalls the recent All Saints Catholic High School grad.

But this led Bukovcan to try new things, including tennis, track and field, and volleyball when she decided to try out for an Ottawa Fusion Volleyball Club competitive team with a group of friends.

“Because it was during the whole COVID time, I had to send in videos of me in my backyard, bumping and setting the ball,” recounts Bukovcan, whose friends didn’t stick with volleyball in the end, although she was all-in.

With a later start to competitive volleyball than many other players, there were questions about whether Bukovcan would be able to excel in the sport, but she’s managed to overcome her own doubts and those who underestimated her.

Right off the bat, it proved challenging to find a partner to train with during COVID as someone new to competitive volleyball. Once she found her footing, Bukovcan was disheartened when she wasn’t selected for Team Ontario the summer after her Grade 10 year.

“After my 16U season trying out for Team O and getting cut, that was a huge step back for me,” reflects the 6’4″ middle. “I feel like I really thought I deserved to make it, and obviously it didn’t go my way.”

But an even greater opportunity lay around the corner. The following season, Bukovcan made the Canadian U19 women’s national team. The confidence of the athlete who just a few years earlier was trying to perfect her dancing skills by Zoom was now at an all-time high.

Playing at the NORCECA continental championships, Bukovcan felt like she belonged at the top level as she and her team went on to win a silver medal in Honduras.

Bukovcan returned to U19 Team Canada this season and recently earned the second-best blocker award and a bronze medal at the June 24-28 U19 Girls’ Pan American Cup at Queen’s University in Kingston.

Fellow Ottawa player Sydney Bell, who recently completed her first year with the University at Buffalo, led the Canadian attack in the bronze medal match. The opposite side hitter had 16 kills as Canada prevailed in five sets over Dominican Republic 25-22, 25-18, 18-25, 19-25, 15-10.

Bukovcan was a major contributor as a starter for Canada at the tournament, scoring eight points in a sweep of Costa Rica, counting 11 as Canada’s #2 scorer in a pool match sweep of Dominican Republic, contributing 13 in a 25-19, 19-25, 26-24, 16-25, 10-15 defeat to Mexico in the semi-finals and 10 more in the bronze medal match.

“Not everyone gets the same opportunities playing for a smaller club like when I was at Fusion,” Bukovcan indicates. “It motivated me even harder to help represent Fusion and put a smaller club on the map.”

Bukovcan, who played her final 18U season with Ottawa’s Maverick Volleyball Club, chose to attend High Point University in North Carolina as a result of her experience with smaller clubs.

“I like to have more of a community and family feel. That’s just something that’s harder to find at a bigger school,” highlights Bukovcan, who also played tennis at All Saints and was fourth in the senior girls’ discus as a Grade 11 student at the 2024 OFSAA provincial track and field championships.

She’ll find several familiar faces among the High Point Panthers. Future HPU teammate Remy Catojo, a setter from Winnipeg, also played for Team Canada. And Élodie Lalonde joined High Point from the Mavericks last year as well.

Read More: After OFSAA volleyball gold & national bronze, NCAA & Team Canada are Élodie Lalonde’s next targets

As soon as Bukovcan stepped onto High Point’s campus outside Greensboro, North Carolina, she knew it was “home.”

Bukovcan has earned numerous classroom distinctions as well, including the best marks in her whole school in Grade 9, a 90%+ honour roll average throughout her entire high school career and a leadership award.

Bukovcan completed a health and wellness “schism” at her school, which allowed her to take a group of courses and certifications related to her interests. She took classes about the human body, diagnosing, and immunology, giving her a strong foundation in not only the medical field but her athletic path as well.

“One of them was a physio-taping certification that I feel like, as an athlete, being able to apply my knowledge and help myself or my teammates is really valuable,” notes Bukovcan, who plans to study biology with a focus on health science – inspired by her parents’ work for medical device and pharmaceutical companies.

“I find it super interesting,” she adds, “because I’m not really the type that would like to interact with patients as much on a day-to-day, but they still have such a big impact in the medical and health world.”

Read More of our 2025 High School Best Series as we tip our caps to top local student-athletes at: OttawaSportsPages.ca/Ottawa-High-School-Best-2025