Richey off to Serbia

File photo

Roberts Creek’s Kyla Richey is off to Serbia with the Canadian National Women’s volleyball team.

Roberts Creek’s Kyla Richey will be spending Canada Day in Serbia with the national women’s volleyball team.

Richey, along with Uni-versity of British Columbia (UBC) teammate Marisa Field, was among the 12 university-level athletes selected June 19 to Team Canada for the FISU Games in Belgrade, Serbia that run July 1 to 12.

Richey is coming off a breakout sophomore season that she capped off with Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Championship MVP honours after an 18-kill performance in the T-Birds gold medal victory over Calgary in February. Field, who just completed her fifth year of eligibility, notched 10 kills, two solo blocks and 10 block assists in the CIS final after a dominating season that led to her All-Canadian status.

The women will be part of a Canadian squad that enters the Belgrade Games looking to make it out of group play for the first time since an eighth-place finish in 2001 in Beijing, China. The Canadian women spikers have since placed 11th in 2003 in South Korea, 12th in 2005 in Turkey and 11th two years ago in Bangkok, Thailand.

Canada’s best result in women’s volleyball at the bi-annual FISU Games remains a pair of fourth positions, in 1983 in Edmonton and in 1997 in Italy.

The 2009 edition of Team Canada is comprised of 11 CIS players, including six former all-Canadians, and an ex-NCAA star who played professional ball in Finland this past season.

— With files from the University of British Columbia

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