Kiera Van Ryk (born January 6, 1999) is a Canadian

volleyball player This is a list of top international volleyball players. A * Foluke Akinradewo * Carolina Albuquerque * Todor Aleksiev * Ana Ida Alvares * Thiago Soares Alves * Dante Amaral * Andrea Anastasi * Matt Anderson * Stéphane Antiga * Halina Aszki ...

. She is part of the Canadian women's national volleyball team. She participated at the

2018 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship The 2018 FIVB Women's World Championship was the eighteenth edition of the event, contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of the ' (FIVB), the sport's global governing body. The final tournament was held in Japan from 29 Sep ...

2018 Women's Pan-American Volleyball Cup The 2018 Women's Pan-American Volleyball Cup was the 17th edition of the annual women's volleyball tournament. It was held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from 8 to 14 July. Twelve teams competed and the top five ranked teams at the end of th ...

, and

2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup The 2019 FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup is the second edition of the FIVB Volleyball Women's Challenger Cup, an annual women's international volleyball tournament contested by 6 national teams that acts as a qualifier for the FIVB Volleyb ...

University career

Van Ryk played two seasons of

U Sports women's volleyball U Sports women's volleyball is the highest level of amateur play of indoor volleyball in Canada and operates under the auspices of U Sports (formerly Canadian Interuniversity Sport). 41 teams from Canadian universities are divided into four athlet ...

for the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

Thunderbirds from 2017 to 2019. She finished her rookie season by winning a Bronze medal at the 2018 U Sports Women's Volleyball Championship. In her second year, she had an outstanding season as she won the Mary Lyons Award as the best U Sports women's volleyball player that year and won the Lieutenant Governor Athletic Award as the best female athlete in all of U Sports for the 2018–19 season. With the Thunderbirds that year, she won a

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

as the team won the 2019 U Sports Women's Volleyball Championship and Van Ryk was named the Tournament MVP.

Professional career

Van Ryk left university to become a professional athlete by signing with

Volley Bergamo Volley Bergamo is an Italian women's volleyball club based in Bergamo and currently playing in the Serie A1. Previous names Due to sponsorship, the club have competed under the following names: * Volley Bergamo (1991–1992) * Foppapedretti Ber ...

of the Italian Women's Volleyball League Serie A1 in 2019. She left Volley Bergamo and returned to Canada in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. She then joined KS DevelopRes Rzeszów of the

Tauron Liga The Polish Women's Volleyball League, known for sponsorship reasons as TAURON Liga (previously known as Orlen Liga and PlusLiga Kobiet) is the highest level of women's volleyball played in Poland. Current teams ''As of 2022-23 season'' Medal ...

for the 2020–21 season. For the 2021–22 season, she played for Türk Hava Yolları SK of the

Turkish Women's Volleyball League The Turkish Women's Volleyball League ( tr, Türkiye Kadınlar Voleybol 1. Ligi) officially called the Sultans League (Turkish: Sultanlar Ligi), is the highest professional women's volleyball league in Turkey. It is run by the Turkish Volleyball Fe ...

Personal life

Van Ryk attended Surrey Christian School and has two older sisters, Jocelyn and Amy. She is also an avid

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

lover.

References

Exteneral links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Ryk, Kiera 1999 births Living people Canadian women's volleyball players Outside hitters University of British Columbia alumni UBC Thunderbirds women's volleyball players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate volleyball players in Italy Expatriate volleyball players in Poland Expatriate volleyball players in Turkey Serie A1 (women's volleyball) players Sportspeople from Surrey, British Columbia