2017 Taipei Summer Universiade (World University Games) – Men’s Tournament
- August 19th-30th
- Chinese Taipei
- Schedule
- Teams
- Event page
The 2017 World University Games’ volleyball tournament got underway on Sunday in Taiwan. With the start of play came the unveiling of the complete American men’s roster for the biennial, multi-sport event.
College students who are 28 years old or younger (that will change to 25 starting with the 2019 Summer Universiade) are eligible to compete if they have been in college classes in the last year before the event. Note that exhausting NCAA eligibility does not have any impact on an athlete’s ability to compete in the students-only competition, so long as they meet the other eligibility requirements.
While many of the top college players in the nation were playing in other tournaments, like TJ DeFalco and Jeff Jendryk at the USA Volleyball Cup, there were still a number of stars present at the tournament. That includes 2017 AVCA First-Team All-Americans Miles Johnson of Ohio State abd Amir Lugo-Rodriguez from Long Beach State.
The United States has won gold in the men’s tournament at the World University Games just once, in 2001, with 4 total medals in 26 editions of the tournament.
The Americans lost their first preliminary match to Japan 3-2 in Pool A. They will now play Chinese Tapiei, France, and Brazil in attempt to finish in the top 2 in their 5-team pool and advance to the 8-team knockout stage.
Russia are the 4-time defending tournament champions.
Representation By College:
- Stanford – 4 (Evan Enriques, Jordan Ewert, Kevin Rakestraw, Paul Bischoff
- Ohio State – 2 (Miles Johnson, Blake Leeson)
- Long Beach State – 2 (Amir Lugo-Rodriguez, Kyle Ensing,
- Lewis University – 1 Ryan Coenen
- UCLA – 1 (Jake Arnitz)
- CSU Northridge – 1 (Arvis Greene)
- UC Irvine – 1 (Michael Saeta)
Full American Roster:
- Evan Enriques, Libero, Stanford University
- Kyle Ensing, Opposite, Long Beach State University
- Amir Lugo-Rodriguez, Middle Blocker, Long Beach State University
- Ryan Coenen, Outside Hitter, Lewis University
- Miles Johnson, Opposite, The Ohio State University
- Jordan Ewert, Outside HItter, Stanford University
- Kevin Rakestraw, Middle Blocker, Stanford University
- Paul Bischoff, Setter, Stanford University
- Jake Arnitz, Outside Hitter, University of California Los Angeles
- Arvis Greene, Opposite, California State University Northridge
- Michael Saeta, Setter, University of California Irvine
- Blake Leeson, Middle Blocker, The Ohio State University
- Head Coach- John Kosty
- Assistant Coach- Daniel Friend
- Assistant Coach- David Heller
- Trainer- Shannon Murphy
Leave a Reply