MONTREAL – Myriam Robitaille, a product of the McGill University Martlets volleyball program, has qualified among Volleyball Canada‘s top four women’s duos during closed trials held this week for the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation, more commonly known as NORCECA, an international governing body for the sports of volleyball in Northern America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
The 29-year-old native of Lachenaie, Que., ranked as the third best duo at the Canadian trials with teammate Darby Dunn of South Surrey, B.C. , who played for Stetson College in Florida. They will be representing Canada on the NORCECA calendar for the next sixth months. The other Canadian women who qualified include the top-ranked pairing of former Montreal Carabins star Marie-Alex Belanger of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, Que., and UCLA grad Lea Monkhouse from Mississauga, Ont. The second ranked duo was Calinda Kok of Kitchener, Ont., and Dana Roskic of Toronto, plus the fourth-seeded pair was University of Toronto grad Anna Licht from Toronto and Amy Ozee, originally from Hawaii.
Robitaille has played in a multitude of international tournaments on the World Beach Pro Tour, including the BPT Challenge in Brazil last month. Since 2021, she has competed in Halifax, Poland, Italy, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Portugal, Turkey, Qatar, Australia and the Netherlands. She also played with two pro teams in Europe, suiting up in 2020-21 for Turnerschaft-Innsbruck, a Div. 1 Austrian team in the Bundesliga, and playing in the 2018-19 season with VFL Oythe in Vechta, Germany.
A 6-foot-1 middle-blocker during her five years with the Martlets, Robitaille majored in languages and French literature before graduating in 2018. After a year in Europe, Robitaille returned to McGill in 2020 to study economics while completing her fifth season of collegiate eligibility.
A two-time Quebec conference all-star with McGill, she earned All-Canadian honours in 2017-18 and served as team captain in her junior and senior seasons. Robitaille, who played for Canada at the 2017 world university FISU Games in Taipei, attended a Volleyball Canada national team selection camp in May, 2017.
She won the national Thérèse Quigley Award in 2016-17, which goes to the U SPORTS player who best combines volleyball and for leadership. That led to Robitaille receiving a Gildan leadership bursary from the Fondation de l’athlète d’excellence du Québec. During her five seasons at McGill, Robitaille tallied 1,069 career points in 347 sets over 93 regular season contests played. She averaged 3.1 points per set and registered 735 kills in addition to 122 aces, 123 stuff blocks, 178 assisted blocks, 287 digs and 75 assists.
Prior to McGill, Robitaille played at the CEGEP level for Collège Édouard-Montpetit. Her older sister Kim Robitaille, who played for for the Sherbrooke Vert & Or, was a member of the Canadian national team who also played on the pro volleyball circuit in Europe.
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca