She couldn't have known it all those years ago, but perhaps Tyra Lasuik was destined to be a Winnipeg Wesmen. 
 
Lasuik, a five-foot-seven setter from Brandon, has committed to the Wesmen women's volleyball team after two superb seasons guiding the Assiniboine Community College Cougars of the MCAC. 
 
Lasuik is the first transfer target of 2026 to be announced by head coach Phil Hudson. She will enroll in Education and have three years of eligibility. 
 
Hudson and Lasuik's father Carey, a longtime coach and administrator in Manitoba high school sport, are close friends and Hudson even babysat Tyra when she was a toddler living in the city.
 
The family moved to Brandon when she was four and it was there that she emerged as a talented multisport athlete, first as a basketball player at Neelin High School before finding volleyball to be her true passion.
 
Lasuik had U Sports offers coming out of high school but coaching changes altered her path and she diverted her gaze to ACC, where veteran Brandon-area coach Kevin Neufeld was building his program. 
 
"My parents told me I would regret it if I didn't play volleyball after (high school), and they were right," Lasuik said. "I chose to go to ACC, and it was honestly the best two years of volleyball I've had."
 
Indeed Lasuik took advantage of the opportunities at ACC, last season being named the MCAC player of the year and leading the Cougars to their first conference title and CCAA nationals berth in program history. 
 
" I definitely took a big step my first year at Assiniboine, having to come in and there already being a setter (on the roster) who had played for a year, and I really wanted to play. That's why I'm there is to play.
 
So I worked my butt off every day. I practised and did everything I could so that I could play. My teammates were definitely the best part. They were the most supportive and encouraging people I've ever met."
 
Lasuik said she always had the goal of playing at the U Sports level, but the offer that came from Hudson to join the Wesmen for 2026 was met with a tinge of trepidation. Lasuik, after all, had built strong relationships with her teammates and coaches at ACC, and stepping away from that was easier said than done. 
 
"I was happy, but I was a little conflicted," she said. 
 
In the end, it was one of her closest friends and teammates who gave Lasuik the clarity she needed to make her decision.
 
" I pulled my teammate, Kylie Peake, into the changing room, and I started bawling my eyes out. I'm like, 'I don't know what to do. I haven't told anyone. I need help.'
 
"So I told her 'I got an offer to go play for U of Dub, but I'm scared to leave. I don't wanna leave all you guys here. We've done such a good job here at Assiniboine. And she looks at me, and she's like, 'Tyra, you'd be stupid if you didn't take it.' So that's kind of when I realized that I would be stupid if I didn't further my volleyball career and my education."
 
Lasuik also knows she'll find a soft landing spot at U of W with a lot of familiar faces. Assistant coach Mary Thomson, also served as an occasional babysitter in Lasuik's youth; she played club with current Wesmen Ella Werbiski, Emily Lavallee and Tiana Low; and she played Team Manitoba with Wesmen Emme Bernardin and Taylor Labossiere. 
 
"The excitement hasn't hit me yet," she confessed. "I'm mostly nervous, but I know when I get there and I start practising with the girls, I'll be excited because they are a great group of girls."

Hudson believes Lasuik has the chance to be an impact player early on.

"Tyra is an excellent athlete and a strong leader," he said. "Her experience of leading ACC to last year's MCAC championship and into the Nationals will allow her have an immediate impact on our team. She has a great work ethic and high level of compete."