Canada’s men’s volleyball team is Tokyo bound after qualifying for the 2020 Olympics this past weekend in Vancouver; four Trinity Western alums were part of Canada’s winning contingent at the Pacific Coliseum.
The Spartans, Ryan Sclater, Daniel Jansen VanDoorn, Steve Marshall, and Lucas Van Berkel made up nearly 30 per cent of Canada’s roster that earned three straight wins, beating Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico to book their ticket to Tokyo.
Sclater highlighted TWU’s group, as he finished the weekend with 24 kills and 32 points, accented by a 14-kill/20-point effort in Canada’s comeback five-set win over Cuba.
All four athletes studied and played at the Langley University, with three of them coming to the campus from Edmonton, Port Coquitlam, and Abbotsford.
Jansen VanDoorn, a Langley native who helped Team Canada nab fifth place at the Rio Olympics in 2016, said he couldn’t have designed a better weekend for himself.
“It was such a special thing and this is probably the highlight of my career so far. To play in what was probably the best volleyball game I’ve ever been a part of against Cuba in front of all these people was just spectacular,” the athlete said. “It’s an amazing feeling.”
READ MORE: Men’s and women’s volleyball teams earn victories for Langley
The result sees Canada set to compete in the Olympics for the second quadrennial in a row after the program had gone 24 years between qualification.
TWU’s quartet was the largest group of players from any single university in Canada.
In the last 10 seasons, Trinity Western’s men’s volleyball team, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the U SPORTS, has won five national championships and four conference titles, while playing in eight national championship finals and nine conference finals.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are set to run July 24 to Aug. 9 this summer.
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Email: ryan.uytdewilligen@langleyadvancetimes.com
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