TOKYO – For the second Olympic Games in a row, Canada's men's volleyball team earned a fifth-place finish, with three Trinity Western alums – Ryan Sclater ('17, Port Coquitlam, B.C.), Lucas Van Berkel ('14, Edmonton) and Steven Marshall ('13, Abbotsford, B.C.) – helping the Red and White side to another strong result.
Canada's Olympic run ended with a 3-0 (25-21, 30-28, 25-22) loss in the quarter-finals to the team representing the Russian Olympic Committee. However, with a second straight appearance in the Olympic quarter-finals, Canada, who is ranked No. 10 in the world, once again showed their prowess on the biggest of stages, hanging with a Russian side that is ranked No. 3 in the world.
Sclater came to play in a major way in the quarter-final contest with the ROC, putting together his best offensive showing of the Olympic tournament, as the former U SPORTS Player of the Year (2016-17) earned 14 points, including 12 kills, one block and one ace. Sclater, who was making his Olympic debut, finished the tournament with 34 points, including 31 kills, three aces and one block. He also had a standout match in Canada's all-important three-set preliminary round win over Iran, which saw him earn 11 kills and an ace.
"I'm excited to build on what we've done here," Sclater said. "We have to trust that we have things going in the right direction. For this game today, it didn't feel like there was anything that we needed to do that was impossible for us...it was really within our grasp, and that's tough to know that. In volleyball it will always come down to a game of serve and pass, and they served aggressively and got some good results, and it really felt like we were just on the verge of breaking through. We were applying some pressure and it almost crossed over that threshold, but they held on well."
Meanwhile Van Berkel, who was also making his Olympic debut, put on a show from start to finish in Tokoy, as the towering middle finished with 48 points, including 32 kills, 14 blocks and two aces. Van Berkel also had his most statistically impressive game against the ROC, earning eight kills, two blocks and one ace.
Marshall, who was also with Canada at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, saw action in three sets throughout the tournament, entering the match in the second and third sets against Poland and late in the third set against the ROC. At one point, in the match with the ROC, Canada's front row included all three Spartans.
The Spartan trio in Tokyo all played together for one season at TWU, in 2012-13, which marked Sclater's first year with the Langley, B.C. based side, while Van Berkel was in his fourth year and Marshall was in his final season as a Spartan. Van Berkel and Sclater played together for two years at TWU, from 2012 to 2014.
TWU had a record-high six Spartans at the Olympics in Tokyo, with Regan Yee ('18, South Hazelton, B.C.) finishing eighth in her heat in the 3000m steeplechase, Alison Jackson ('14, Vermilion, Alta.) finishing 32nd in the women's cycling road race and TWU head athletic therapist
Natalie Ghobrial working with Canada's bronze-medal winning softball team.
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 12 U SPORTS team championships and 29 Canada West team championships.
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