The Canadian Men and Women’s Volleyball teams will kick off the 2022 season with a packed Volleyball Nations League schedule. The men’s VNL gets underway on June 7 in Ottawa, when Canada opens the tournament with a match against Germany. The women’s VNL campaign gets underway on June 1st in Shreveport-Bossier City, LA, USA, with Canada’s first match against Poland.
Today, the 25 player rosters were revealed for the Canadian men and women. This is the list of athletes who will be eligible to play for Canada throughout VNL, but only 14 players will be carried to the actual games. The Canadian mens roster, in particular, features a number of young, new faces, while many of the familiar Canadian stars will be absent from this summer’s tournament. Notably, longtime national team members like: Gord Perrin, Graham Vigrass, Blair Bann, Steve Marshall, TJ Sanders and Sharone Vernon-Evans are not on the roster. Perrin and Vigrass both publicly announced their retirement over the last few months. It has yet to be seen if the other veterans will make an appearance later in the summer in time for the World Championships.
Along with the lengthy list of new players, there is also a new leader at the helm, as VNL will be men’s head coach Ben Josephson’s first tournament since taking over the program from Glen Hoag.
VNL Men’s Roster:
- Jordan Canham O
- Matthew Neaves O
- Jesse Elser OH
- Nicholas Hoag OH
- Eric Loeppky OH
- Danny Demyanenko MB
- Stephen Maar OH
- Brett Walsh S
- Jay Blankenau S
- Ryan Sclater O
- Pearson Eshenko MB
- Lucas Van Berkel MB
- Max Elgert S
- Xander Ketrzynski O
- Marc Wilson MB
- Jordan Schnitzer MB
- Ryley Barnes OH
- Justin Lui L
- Brodie Hofer OH
- Derek Epp S
- Jackson Howe MB
- Brandon Koeppers OH
- Fynnian McCarthy MB
- Mathias Elser S
- Samuel Cooper OH
The Canadian women’s team just kicked off their season earlier this week as they began training together at the Olympic Oval in Richmond. There are more returning faces amongst the women’s roster, between last year’s VNL campaign and this year. The usual starters for Canada such as Kiera Van Ryk, Alexa Gray and Shainah Joseph are all healthy and coming off of strong professional seasons according to Canadian head coach Shannon Winzer.
“Everyone looks great. Our Canadian athletes are playing in really good leagues now. More and more athletes are playing in top pro leagues as we grow as a sport here in Canada we see that reflected. So for VNL you are going to see athletes playing pretty fearless and playing hard for us. I think we are an exciting team to watch, we play like we have nothing to lose.” Shannon Winzer, Head Coach
VNL Women’s Roster:
- Allyssah Fitterer MB
- Melissa Langegger OH
- Kiera Van Ryk OH
- Vicky Savard OH
- Julia Murmann L
- Jazmine White MB
- Claire Cossarini MB
- Alicia Ogoms MB
- Alexa Gray OH
- Courtney Baker S
- Andrea Mitrovic OH
- Jennifer Cross MB
- Brie King S
- Hilary Howe OH
- Shainah Joseph OH
- Caroline Livingston OH
- Katerina Georgiadis L
- Kim Robitaille S
- Emily Maglio MB
- Arielle Palermo L
- Avery Heppell MB
- Kennedy Snape L
- Laura Madill S
- Natasha Calkins O
- Sydney Grills O