The Dalhousie Tigers - Dalhousie University

Before landing at Dalhousie in 1979, Karen Fraser grew up in Halifax playing a variety of sports including basketball, badminton, field hockey, tennis and ice hockey in addition to volleyball. She excelled in them all, earning a multitude of MVP and all-star awards along the way. 

A member of Nova Scotia’s provincial volleyball team for many years, she led them to a seventh place finish at the Canada Games in 1979 before starting her career at Dalhousie - and what a career it was. 

A fourth-generation Dalhousian, Karen was recruited by then-coach Lois MacGregor. She and her teammates were crowned the AUAA champions at the end of the 1979-80 season. Karen earned conference all-star and rookie of the year honours and was named an all-star at the CIAU championship. 

The following year, the Tigers lost in the conference championship final, but Karen was still rewarded for her outstanding play with her second AUAA all-star honour and her first CIAU second team all-Canadian award. 

Karen and her teammates re-grouped the following season to win the Tigers sixth AUAA title in program history. She was again named an AUAA all-star and was instrumental in winning the program’s first-ever national championship on home turf at Dalplex. A CIAU second team all-Canadian, she shared team MVP honours with fellow Dalhousie hall of famer Karin Maessen at the end of the 1981-82 season. 

A member of Canada’s senior national team since 1979, Karen headed to Ottawa to train full time with a commerce degree in hand that spring. When Canada narrowly missed qualifying for the 1984 Olympics, many of the core players retired from international competition, including Karen, who returned to Dalhousie to focus on grad work before re-joining the Tigers for the second half of the season in December of 1983 (after some gentle prodding from Coach McGregor). She had another standout season, leading the Tigers to another conference championship and a silver medal finish at the national championships. 

That spring, Cuba decided to boycott the Olympics and Canada was the next team to qualify for the NORCECA berth. Karen was one of two former national team athletes asked to rejoin the young team that had started training for the next quadrennial. Despite their youthful roster, Team Canada had a strong showing at the event in Los Angeles, finishing in eighth place.

Karen returned to campus that fall and assumed the role of head coach of the Dalhousie squad with Coach MacGregor on maternity leave. She led them to a perfect regular season record of 14-0 and the program’s eighth AUAA championship title. 

With Coach MacGregor back on the bench the following season, she convinced Karen to return to the floor for her fifth and final year. She led the Tigers to another conference championship win after a 13-0 regular season record and was a CIAU first team all-Canadian in addition to being named the AUAA MVP at the end of the 1985-86 season. The team MVP, she also received the Class of ’55 award as Dalhousie’s female athlete of the year. 

Karen’s first foray onto the national stage came as a member of 1978-79 junior national team after leading the Halifax West High School team to a second-straight Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation championship title. She progressed to the senior team the following year for five years until 1984. In addition to playing in the 1984 Olympics, Karen travelled the globe with Team Canada at the Pan Am Games, the World Student Games, the NORCECA tournament, world championships and multiple World Cup tours, starting in most matches. 

Unable to consider playing professionally due to a myriad of injuries, Karen transitioned from volleyball player to full time coach, assuming the reins of the Dalhousie team for five seasons between 1986 and 1991, leading the Tigers to three conference championship titles. She then moved on to working in the athletic department for more than 30 years in various roles, retiring as the Director of Varsity Athletics in 2014. 

“I had the honour of coaching Karen for seven years,” says former women’s volleyball coach Lois MacGregor. “She had exceptional skills and was feared for her force and prowess at the net. She always worked hard at practice and in games. She had a real brilliant mind and attitude for the game of volleyball. A real game changer, she could single handedly bring her teammates back into games when we were behind.”