One of the most decorated student-athletes in Thompson Rivers University history, Iuliia Pakhomenko has been named to the Canada West Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2025–26, the conference announced Monday.
Pakhomenko is one of four inductees in the Athlete category, joining basketball standouts Veronica Den Oudsten (Calgary) and Patrick Jebbison (Brandon), along with Canadian Olympian Regan Yee (Trinity Western, cross country/track and field). In total, eight inductees across four categories make up this year’s class.
A transformative talent for the WolfPack women’s volleyball program from 2014 to 2017, Pakhomenko’s impact at TRU was immediate and lasting. A dominant force on the left side, she earned U SPORTS All-Canadian honours in all three of her seasons in Kamloops, highlighted by being named U SPORTS Player of the Year in 2015–16.
At the conference level, her résumé is equally impressive. Pakhomenko was a three-time Canada West First Team All-Star, the 2015–16 Canada West Player of the Year, and remains the only WolfPack athlete ever named Canada West Female Athlete of the Year.
Arriving at TRU to join a program that had not won a match in two seasons, the native of Donetsk, Ukraine helped engineer a dramatic turnaround. Under her leadership, the WolfPack posted back-to-back sixth-place finishes in Canada West and earned two postseason berths, marking a new era of competitiveness for the program.
Pakhomenko’s name is firmly embedded throughout the Canada West record books. She ranks first in conference career history with 4.60 kills per set, second in single-season kills (425) and points (496.5), and third in career aces per set at 0.502. She also holds seven of the top 10 highest single-match kill totals in Canada West history.
Her induction into the Canada West Hall of Fame further cements her legacy as a true game-changer in TRU Athletics history and one of the most outstanding student-athletes to ever represent the WolfPack.
The Canada West Hall of Fame was established in 2019 to commemorate 100 years of university sporting excellence across Western Canada. Individual spotlights for all eight members of the Class of 2025–26 will be released on the Canada West website and social media channels over the coming month.
