SPARTANS PAST AND PRESENT WIN BEACH VOLLEYBALL NATIONALS

Nick Del Bianco at the World Youth Championships - FIVB.org

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2010
BEACH NATIONALS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SPARTANS PAST AND PRESENT WIN BEACH VOLLEYBALL NATIONALS

LANGLEY, British Columbia – Trinity Western men’s volleyball, both past and present, proved golden on the sand Sunday as both incoming Spartan Nick Del Bianco (1st year, Surrey, B.C.) and former Spartan Chaim Schalk (Red Deer, Alta.) celebrated national championships in their respective divisions.

 Del Bianco, teamed with long-time partner Ben Chow, won the 18U Boys division while Schalk, playing with Martin Reader, took home the Senior Men’s Division 1 title.

After a summer playing alongside Toronto’s Garrett May as Canada’s top 19U team – which included a fourth place finish at the FIVB World Youth Championships – Del Bianco rejoined Chow for nationals and the chemistry was instantly rekindled.

The B.C. based tandem ran through the three-day event by winning all 18 sets, cruising to a perfect 9-0 record that was capped by a 21-16, 21-15 win over Aaron Nusbaum and Grant O’Gorman in the gold medal game.

As for Schalk, the route to the final wasn’t nearly as smooth, but the golden results were all the same.

Schalk and Reader went 2-2 in the round robin, but then turned things around in a big way when it really mattered.

After losing to Maverick Hatch/Jessi Lelliott and Ryan Vandenburg/Andrew Hinchey in the round robin, Schalk and Reader exacted revenge on both teams in the playoffs as they steamrolled to the gold medal game without dropping a set, a run that included a win over former Spartan Steven Marshall who was playing with Ben Saxton.

In the final, Schalk and Reader played fellow national team members Richard Van Huizen and Chris Redmann and knocked them off in straight sets 21-14, 26-24 to win the national title.

About TWU:

Trinity Western University, located in Langley, B.C., is a not-for-profit Christian liberal arts university enrolling over 4,000 students this year. With a broad based, liberal arts and sciences curriculum, the University offers undergraduate degrees in 41 major areas of study ranging from business, education and computer science to biology and nursing, and 17 other graduate degrees including counselling psychology, theology and administrative leadership. For more information, visit TWU's Official Athletics site at gospartans.ca.

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport:

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-two universities, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. The CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, and 32 World University Championships. For further information, visit www.universitysport.ca.

About Canada West Universities Athletic Association:

Canada West is consistently the most decorated of the four conferences in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), winning at least 10 CIS national titles every year since 1997-98. Comprised of 13 schools, from the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada West produces numerous major award winners and Academic All-Canadian student-athletes each year, with many going on to athletic success around the globe in pro leagues or events such as the Olympics, Paralympics or Universiade Games.

-TW-

Last Updated: 2010-08-30
Author: Mark Janzen