Cordonier –a devastating 6-foot-1 left-side hitter — has already garnered just about every award on the women’s college volleyball scene for 2009-10; National female player of the year, Canada West player of the year, first-team all-Canadian as well as MVP at this year’s CIS championship tournament.

A 23-year-old geography major Cordonier has completed her college eligibility and has her sights set on continuing in both the indoor and beach versions of the sport. This summer she has committed to playing on the 2010 World Beach Volleyball Tour.

“I”ve got a goal of the Olympics some day, whether it’s beach or indoor” says Cordonier, who was preceded on the UBC women’s team by her sister Emily and currently has brothers Joe and John on the T-Bird men’s team.

Cordonier was also a winner at the annual UBC Big Block Awards banquet. She took female athlete of the year honours as well as graduating female athlete of the year.

The winners will be announced at the BLG Awards Ceremony tonight, Monday, April 26, 2010 at EPCOR CENTRE’s Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary.

Notes from Lyndon Little, Vancouver Sun

“It’s been awesome,” he said. “It’s been an amazing experience.”

It often takes college players a while to adjust to the university level, but deGroot found success quickly. He switched from setter to libero in his final year with the Eagles and carried on at libero with the Gryphons, claiming Ontario University Athletics’ libero of the year award in both 2008-09 and 2009-10.

deGroot said the libero position, which was introduced into international volleyball in 1998, has added a lot to the game. Liberos are defensive specialists who sub in for weak passers during their backcourt rotations and often make the crucial first dig on serves or spikes.

As liberos aren’t allowed to spike or block above the net, height is less important than it is at other positions; deGroot, at 6′2”, is one of the taller liberos in CIS competition but one of the shortest players on his team. He said his height does give him an advantage, though.

“Being tall, you can cover more ground,” he said. “It’s still a tall man’s game.”

deGroot said the transition from setter to libero took a lot of work, but his setting experience has helped him in his new role.

“As a setter, you kind of see the whole game,” he said. “Working with my setter, I know what he’s thinking; I know what he needs.”

Get the full story…Andrew Bucholtz, sportingmadness.ca

Thompson Rivers head coach Pat Hennelly said the Gaels played a solid game.

“Give Queen’s credit; they did a lot of good things,” he said. “In the fourth and the fifth, their defence really paid off. We just didn’t show enough energy.”

Queen’s head coach Brenda Willis said the team’s performance at nationals should help validate Queen’s as a solid volleyball program.

“It always feels good when you win,” she said. “We came in seeded fifth and I think a lot of people believed we shouldn’t be fifth, that we weren’t as good as anyone in Canada West. Canada West is a great conference, but we really believe that with this group of athletes, if we had the chance to play at this level all the time, we’d be as good as anybody.”

The Gaels lost their first match in straight sets to the Trinity Western Spartans Friday, knocking them out of the championship-side bracket, but they beat the Université de Montréal Carabins Saturday to advance to the fifth-place final against the WolfPack.

The Spartans went on to the tournament final, which Willis said makes the loss to them more palatable for Queen’s.

“When you lose to number-one or number-two and you win your next two, there’s nothing to be ashamed of,” she said. “We’re pretty happy.”

Queen’s setter Dan Rosenbaum said the team bounced back nicely from their opening loss.

“After day one against Trinity Western, we were pretty discouraged,” he said. “Once we realized we could still come out of the tournament with two wins and one loss, we decided to come out and play.”

Rosenbaum said the team’s performance should help OUA schools’ reputation, especially considering that the Gaels weren’t ranked in the national Top 10 heading into the tournament.

“I think it’s a good statement game for the OUA,” he said. “There’s a lot of naysayers out there that like to put down Ontario volleyball. Hopefully in the next couple of years, we can prove them wrong and be in the conversation with the top volleyball teams in the nation.”

Rosenbaum said the team’s hoping to build on this performance for the next few seasons.

“I think it works really well with our five-year plan, hosting nationals in what would be mine and Bryan and Joren [Zeeman] and Niko [Rukavina]’s fifth year,” he said. “To win OUAs and get to CIs this year was a really good experience. Hopefully we can use that to move forward next year and in our fifth year, get ready to win a medal.”

Andrew Bucholtz, queensjournal,ca

The seedings were announced Sunday evening for the 2010 CIS tourney set to kick off Friday at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. The gold-medal final of the eight-team competition is scheduled for Sunday at 3 p.m. EST

Rounding out the seedings are the No. 2 and reigning two-time CIS champion Alberta Golden Bears (Canada West champions), No. 3 Dalhousie Tigers (AUS champions), No. 4 Trinity Western Spartans (Canada West finalists), No. 5 Queen’s Gaels (OUA champions), No. 6 Calgary Dinos (Canada West bronze medallists), No. 7 Thompson Rivers WolfPack (championship hosts), and No. 8 Montreal Carabins (QSSF finalists).

SSN Canada will have live webcasts of all main-bracket duels, including the bronze-medal match.

photo courtesy: gogaelsgo.com

Tournament MVP honours went to Laval’s Frederic Desbiens, who collected three aces in the final game, including the final point to win the matchup.

Karl De Granpre and Jonathan Marcoux were game all-stars for the Rouge et Or, while Mike Spence and Ryan Vandenburg were recognized for Toronto.

The Brandon Bobcats claimed the bronze medal earlier in the day with a convincing 3-1 decision over the Sherbrooke Vert et Or. Brandon took the matches 25-18, 25-18, 22-25 and finished the day off with a strong 25-14 victory.

Get the full story yorku.ca

For the second time in three years, the Pepperdine University Wave of California are the champions. The Wave downed the Dalhousie Tigers of Halifax, Nova Scotia 3-0 to take the 2010 title. The scores were 25-15,25-23,25-21.

The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack captured the bronze medal. The WolfPack beat the Trinity Western Spartans 3-2 (30-28,25-22,17-25,19-25,15-12).

Get all the stories of the tournament

“We are going to see most of the top teams in the nation,” says Thompson Rivers University WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly.

The teams involved in this year’s tournament include two of the top teams in the country: McMaster (Hamilton, Ontario, OUA) and the Calgary Dinos (Calgary, Alta, Canada West).

“We also have the top ranked team in Atlantic Canada right now in Dalhousie,” says Hennelly Most of these teams are coming here with an eye to looking at the facility before the Nationals.”

Other teams involved in the McDonalds International are: University of Toronto Blues (OUA), Trinity Western Spartans (Langley, Canada West), UBC Okanagan Heat (Kelowna, BC College Athletic Association) and the Pepperdine University Wave (Malibu, California, NCAA).

The tournament begins Saturday January 2nd. The match ups have Pepperdine against UBC Okanagan (1 pm), Trinity Western vs McMaster (3 pm), Calgary vs Dalhousie (730 pm). The host WolfPack will open up their part of the tournament with a 6 pm match against the University of Toronto.

“Toronto is definitely in the middle of the pack in the OUA,” Hennelly explains. “But they have a number of BC Kids”.

More Thompson Rivers University

photo: Ray Bourgeois

Rebecca Glancy says she was “shocked” when her name was announced as MVP of the recent UNB Invitational women’s volleyball tournament.

Varsity Reds’ head coach John Richard was only mildly surprised.

Richard knew he was getting a top-notch recruit the second Glancy, a 6′2″ middle from Toronto, committed to the V-Reds.
Glancy played six years for Durham Attack, a perennial Ontario power ranked No. 1 in Canada the past five years. She was also with Ontario’s provincial team the past two summers.

Her club team won the 18U National Championships last year.

“Of the six starters, five of them went to the NCAA,” Richard said. “She’s the only player who stayed in Canada.”

Get the full story from Bruce Hallihan, The Daily Gleaner

He guided the Varsity Blues to 14 division championships and a record 13 OUA championships, including five in a row (1991-95), and was a seven-time OUA coach of the year.

In total, Orest led the U of T men’s volleyball team to 14 national championship appearances, with their best finish coming when they earned the CIAU silver medal in 1991.

Orest produced 63 OUA all-stars and 17 all-Canadians, and has seen seven players participate with the Canadian national team.  He received U of T’s Thomas R. Loudon Award in 2002 for outstanding service in the advancement of athletics.

In addition to his significant contribution to the Varsity Blues, Orest advanced the sport of volleyball through his roles as tournament director on Volleyball Canada’s national beach tour (1991-2002) and as a member of the Volleyball Canada beach high performance committee (2003-present).

Orest coached the Ontario men’s Canada Games team in 1987 and 1989; over the past 25 years he has coached several National Beach Volleyball Champions; and he was head coach of Canada’s National Beach Volleyball team at the 1997 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, where the Canadian men’s team of Conrad Leinemann and Jody Holden won a gold medal.  In 2003, Orest received the Syl Apps Special Achievement Award for recognition of outstanding service to OFSAA and school sport.

Orest is by far the most successful and important men’s volleyball coach at U of T by making the Blues a powerhouse in the OUA and CIS.

Orest Stanko
7T6 MA Political Economy
Builder – Volleyball

The second-year physics and biology major at Queen’s University recorded the highest academic standing of all Gael varsity athletes in his first year — an eye-popping 88 per cent for the science major from Westdale Secondary School.

“Dan is bright and analytical,” said Brenda Willis, coach of the Gaels men’s varsity volleyball team. “His ability (as a setter) to process quickly is evident. He is deceptive.

“In this, his first year as the starting setter (Dan played behind three-time All-Canadian Devon Miller as a freshman) he has established himself as one of the best in the OUA.”

In his sophomore season, the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) All-Academic led the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) in assists (740) – a striking stat – good for third best in the nation. And in 70 sets this season the Quest for Gold (Ontario Athlete Assistance Program) recipient averaged over 10 assists per game en route to an OUA silver medal behind perennial power McMaster Marauders.

The cerebral setter is no stranger to academic excellence. In his graduating year at Westdale, “Rosie” was the recipient of the Governor General’s Academic Medal for the highest overall standing among his peers earning valedictorian status.

The 19-year-old is among 24 talented young men targeted for the Canadian Junior National Volleyball Team Selection Camp being held in Winnipeg June 15-18. The Queen’s Principal’s scholar (an academic scholarship valued at $5,000) is one of four setters among the two dozen elite juniors invited to the camp.

Get the full story, Cecelia Carter-Smith, Hamilton Spectator