Jenny Benkie (WVB | Student-athlete)

NAME: Jenny (Cartmell) Benkie

UNIVERSITY: Alberta

CATEGORY: Student-Athlete

SPORT: Women’s Volleyball

YEARS ACTIVE: 1995-2000

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Five straight CIAU championships (1996-2000)

• CIAU and Canada West Volleyball Rookie of the Year in 1996

• Back-to-back CIAU and CW volleyball MVP in 1999 and 2000

• 1999-2000 CIAU Female Athlete of the Year

BIOGRAPHY:

A winner of five straight national titles, Jenny Benkie embodied the University of Alberta’s women’s volleyball dynasty of the 1990s.

Benkie was a power hitter with the Pandas from 1995-96 through 1999-2000, a span that saw Alberta win the CIAU championship every season. In her final two seasons, she served as the team’s co-captain.

Along with unprecedented team success, Benkie received scores of individual honours, most prominently the Howard Mackie Award as CIAU Female Athlete of the Year in 1999-2000, and the CIAU women’s volleyball Player of the Year award in 1998-99 and 1999-2000.

She also won both the Bakewell Trophy as the University of Alberta’s Most Outstanding Female Athlete and the Canada West Women’s Volleyball MVP on back-to-back occasions in 1998-99 and 1999-2000. She was also a back-to-back CIAU Academic All Canadian and CIAU First Team All-Canadian both seasons. As a first-year athlete in 1995-96 she was named the CIAU, Canada West and University of Alberta Rookie of the Year.

Benkie represented Canada at the FISU Games three times (1997 in Italy, 1999 in Spain, and 2001 in China). Following her university career, she went on to spend several years with the Canadian national team while playing pro volleyball in Belgium and Sweden.

The native of Sherwood Park, Alta. is a member of both the University of Alberta Sports Wall of Fame (class of 2015) and Alberta Volleyball Hall of Fame (2011) as an individual, and has been inducted in the University of Alberta Sports Wall of Fame (2008) and Alberta Sports Hall of Fame (2011) as part of the Pandas volleyball dynasty teams.