Mackenzie Zatylny has been playing volleyball for as long as she can remember and she's helped the Gilbert Plains Trojans varsity girls program have a ton of success in the past two years. That continued over the weekend at the provincials in Riverton as the 16-year-old was named the Tournament's Most Valuable Player.
She was given the award after she helped the Trojans' win their third straight provincial title, two of which have come at the varsity level.
"I think it's pretty great that I won the MVP award," said Zatylny. "There were a ton of really good volleyball players at the event so I'm really happy that I won it, it means a lot."
The majority of the team has been playing together since they were in grade 5. They also won a junior varsity provincial championship two seasons ago. Now that their time playing as a team has come to an end, Zatylny had great things to say on the past few years.
"It was a lot of fun. I got to know all of them really well," said Zatylny. "We always had a blast and we were able to win which is always great."
Mackenzie's high school volleyball career with Gilbert Plains has come to an end. However, her high school volleyball career still has one game left. She's been selected to play in the A-AA-AAA graduating high school all-star game this weekend in Winnipeg.
She'll be joined by her Trojan teammates, Paige Gaber and Grace Bonham at the game.
"I'm really excited to play with Paige and Grace," continued Zatylny. "It's also exciting that I'll be playing with a bunch of girls that I've never really played against."
When it comes to her expectations on the event, Mackenzie is a provincial MVP so she expects to show what she can do at the elite level that she's used to.
"It's going to be a challenge for sure, but I'm excited for it," she added. "It's going to be just like provincials. It'll be really competitive and I know it will be a great experience."
After this weekend, Mackenzie will try out for the Brandon Cats U18 club volleyball team. Come next fall, she'll either be Winnipeg bound or Brandon bound. The grade 12 student has received offers to play volleyball at either Canadian Mennonite University or Assiniboine Community College.
"I certainly wasn't expecting that. I was planning on going to ACC, but now that I have another offer, we'll see what happens," concluded Zatylny.
