Canada Releases Men’s U21 World Championship Roster

2017 MEN’S U21 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

• June 23 to July 2
• Schedule
• Teams

The Canadian men’s junior team has announced their roster for the 2017 Men’s U21 World Championships that will take place in Brno and Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.

The Canadian team qualified for the event through a bronze-medal finish at the U21 Pan Am Cup last month. The teams first match of the competition will be in Brno against the hosts, Czech Republic. There are 16 teams that have qualified for the event, with Russia trying to reclaim the title, after winning the event the past two editions.

The traveling roster for the Canadians features a number of athletes from top universities in Canada and the United States.

• Mikael Clegg; St. Andrews, MB; (University of Winnipeg) – Setter
• Jesse Elser; Calgary, AB (FTC – Team Canada) – Left Side
• Derek Epp; Saskatoon, SK; (University of Saskatchewan) – Setter
• Daenan Gyimah; Scarborough, ON (UCLA Bruins) – Middle
• Joel Rudd; Cambridge, ON (Queen’s University) – Left Side
• Eric Loeppky; Steinbach, MB (Trinity Western University) – Left Side
• Matthew Mawdsley; London, ON (University of Waterloo) – Middle
• Fynn McCarthy; Lake Country, BC (Kelowna Volleyball Club) – Middle
• Matthew Passalent; Hamilton, ON (McMaster University) – Right Side
• Jordan Pereira; St. Catharines, ON (McMaster University) – Libero
• Taryq Sani; Ajax, ON (University of Alberta) – Left Side
• Max Vriend; Barrhead, AB (MacEwan University) – Middle

Staff:
Paul Gratton; Orléans, ON – Team Manager
Gino Brousseau; Quebec City, QC – Head Coach
Adam Simac; Ottawa/Toronto, ON – Assistant Coach
Francois St-Denis; Ottawa, ON – Assistant Coach
Daniel Cuzmar Grimalt; Quebec City, QC – Statistician
Jennifer Martins; Waterloo, ON. – Therapist
Murat Haktanir – Statistician

Loeppky, an outside hitter for the team, came out of Trinity Western, a team that has won two consecutive U Sports men’s championships in Canada.  In the championship match, Loeppky put down 12 kills in the win. Two players from McMaster, Passalent and Pereira, a team that took down Ohio State, the 2016 and 2017 men’s NCAA champions.

Highlighting from an American university is Daenan Gyimah who plays with UCLA. The 2017 season was Gyimah’s freshman season with the Bruins, putting down 142 kills for an average of 2.41 kills per set on a .494 hitting percentage. In addition, Gyimah put down 58 blocks for an average of .98 blocks per set.

Schedule

Canada will begin their World Championship slate with the Czech Republic in Pool A, followed by Morocco and Poland in the first batch of pool play matches for the event. After the first three matches, all teams will be re-pooled for another set of pool play matches followed by classification matches and the semifinals/finals.