The Liane Fenwick Medal

MWVA Club Player of the Year - The Liane Fenwick Medal

The MWVA Club Player of the Year is awarded to the player in the club who best demonstrates a passion for the game, and a commitment to becoming the best Volleyballer (and person) they can be. MWVA has a long history of elite level player success, starting with Karen Green representing the Australian Women’s Indoor Volleyball Team in 1978. Since then, the club has had many Australian representatives, players contracted to play in the European Leagues, and numerous North American College Scholarship players - including Jesse Mann - currently playing Volleyball at the University of Hawaii. All of these players are legends in their own right, but Olympic Representation is widely regarded as the pinnacle of sport and therefore the highest of goals to pursue. Our first Volleyball Olympian was Liane Fenwick. It’s for this distinction that our Club Player of the Year award is named The Liane Fenwick Medal.

Liane’s Story

Liane was the first MWVA member to play Volleyball for Australia in an Olympic Games in 1996 - playing Beach Volleyball with Anita Spring in Atlanta.

Liane’s Story is full of milestones that demonstrate her athletic prowess, her determined nature, and (most importantly) what a great human being she is. She is the physical demonstration of what it is to strive to be your best self, and live a life where others can benefit from your good nature. 

• 1984

  • Started Volleyball as a school sport at Pittwater High School

  • Started playing Sunday night Volleyball at MWVA

• 1986

  • Progressed to SVL (then known as “State League”) with MWVA

  • NSW U15 selection and continued through all junior age groups in the following years through to NSW Open Women's selection through the 1990’s

• 1987

  • Australian U19 selection

• 1988

  • Debuted for Australian Women's Indoor Team 

• 1989 

  • Started playing Beach Volleyball during Indoor off season

• 1991

  • Sporting Scholarship to Ohio State University for Indoor Volleyball

  • Won the “Big 10” championship & came 3rd in the NCAA finals

• 1993

  • Returned to Australia to accept a position in the Australian Indoor Volleyball full-time Women's program based in Perth

• 1994

  • Appointed Captain of Australian Indoor Volleyball Team 

  • Won the Australian Open Beach Volleyball title 

  • Top 10 Finish in her first World Beach Volleyball tour event in Brazil.

• • Left Australia Indoor Volleyball team in late 1994 to play Beach Volleyball full-time with a goal of Olympic Qualification

• 1996

  • Achieved Olympic selection in Beach Volleyball, achieving 7th place in the 1996 Olympic Games

• 1998

  • Joined the AIS Rowing Program in a quest to make the Olympics in another sport

• 2000

  • Advanced to the final Olympic selection regatta in 2000 but was ultimately not successful in making the women's eight

  • Invited back to the Australian Indoor Volleyball program at the AIS in Canberra to begin training for the Sydney Olympics

  • As is the case with many unlucky elite level athletes: Liane suffered a shoulder injury that required an immediate shoulder reconstruction 6 weeks before the Games, dashing her hopes of competing in Sydney 

• 2001

  • After shoulder rehab, won a national Rowing title 

  • Equaled the Australian record in the gruelling 2km ergometer test 

  • Advanced to the final selection camp for the Aus women's eight

  • Despite finishing in the top eight rankings, Liane was not chosen by the selectors to compete in the women's eight for the World Champs. The selected crew went on to win the world championship title a few months later

• 2003

  • Trained on, with a goal of qualifying for the 2004 Olympics until becoming pregnant with her first child and retiring from sport

• In addition to all these amazing sporting achievements, Liane became an accomplished Physiotherapist, completing post-graduate qualifications in pelvic floor physio and women's health - specialising in that area for decades since, and has recently become an accomplished ceramicist!

The inaugural presentation of The Liane Fenwick Medal will be in 2024 - the first in what we hope becomes a long tradition of recognising excellence in our long standing club.

Liane Fenwick Medalists:

2024 - TBA