Volleyball players like Paige McDowell have a little more spring in their step out on the court these days thanks to the award-winning research of undergraduate Renee Meloche.

Renee Meloche.

“It was great to do a study that was really practical that could help the girls to perform better,” said Meloche, a fourth-year kinesiology major who will receive one of two outstanding undergraduate student awards at Monday’s Celebration of Excellence in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity.

Under the supervision of assistant professor Sarah Woodruff, Meloche conducted a week-long study last year with the Lancer women’s volleyball team. Using the department’s recently-acquired Bod-Pod, she measured each player’s body composition. Then, for the entire week, players wore a device that constantly records skin surface temperature — directly related to caloric energy output — and to keep a log of everything they ate and drank. At the end of the week, their body composition was recorded again.

According to her results, the players weren’t consuming nearly enough calories for the amount of energy they were expending.

“Overall the girls were expending significantly more calories than they were taking in, so they had a negative energy balance,” said Meloche, who noted that on game days they were burning an average of 4,000 calories. “They lost fat-free mass such as muscle and they gained fat mass.”

“Their bodies were just hoarding everything they took in,” added Dr. Woodruff.

After the study was complete, the players received an individualized record of their data and nutrition counselling. A fourth-year criminology student and senior on the team, McDowell said she eats more food now — especially grains and vegetables — and has lost fat, gained muscle and seen her performance get better.

“My vertical actually improved,” she said. “I feel a lot healthier in my everyday life and I feel a lot better on the court.”

Meloche, who grew up in LaSalle and has applied to go to medical school next year, had her work ranked as the highest abstract when it was presented at the Western Society for Kinesiology and Wellness conference in Las Vegas last fall.

Matt Battiston.

The other outstanding undergrad award will go to Matt Battiston, a third-year Biological Sciences student who has been working in professor Dan Mennill’s lab since last year on a project studying the vocal behaviour of the long-tailed manakin, a small bird found mostly in Central America.

Dr. Mennill said Battiston — who won an NSERC Summer Undergraduate Research Award last year — took on a challenging research project under a graduate student in his lab and that his results were instrumental in another project designed to evaluate the way pairs of animals interact with one another. He participated in two other projects last summer and his results contributed to two important journal publications, Mennill said.

“Matt is an extraordinary undergraduate researcher, with a very impressive record of research successes to date and a bright research career ahead,” Mennill wrote in his nomination letter. “He stands out as one of the most talented undergraduate research students I have encountered in my career.”

All award winners will be recognized at an event that begins at 4:30 p.m. on February 6 in the Ambassador Auditorium, CAW Student Centre.