Four members of the York Lions’ Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Champion men’s volleyball team have been selected to represent Canada at the 2005 under-21 FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championships. The four – Paul Podstawka, Kevin Lewis, Sholan Trivedi and Rob Dyba – will form the two Canadian teams competing at the Worlds.
Podstawka will pair with Lewis on the first team while Trivedi and Dyba make up the second team. All were selected following a two-day identification camp held March 26-27 in Toronto.
Right: Lions’ Paul Podstawka in action against Western in the OUA finals (Photo by Andrew Craig)
Podstawka, a native of Ancaster, Ont., was named to the OUA All-Rookie team after leading the Lions in kills this year. He represented Canada at the 2004 under-21 World Junior Championship in Portugal and was a 2003 Canadian Under-18 Beach Champion.
Lewis tallied 95 kills, 75 digs and tied for the team lead with 17 aces during his freshman year with the Lions in 2003-2004. The St. Catharines, Ont., native was the under-18 Ontario Beach Champion and Canadian silver medallist in 2002.
Named to the OUA All-Rookie team, Trivedi recorded 10 or more kills in 11 matches for the Lions this season. A four-time volleyball MVP at Hamilton’s Barton Secondary School in Hamilton, he won a silver medal at the 2001 under-16 National Championship.
Dyba, a second-year libero from Newmarket, Ont., was selected to the OUA All-Rookie team in 2003-2004. Dyba and Trivedi won the 2004 International University Cup Beach Championship and earned a bronze at the 2003 Canadian Juvenile Beach Championship.
“One of the reasons our team did so well this year can be related to the number of athletes that we have playing the beach game,” said York head coach Wally Dyba. “These selections to the World championships are further evidence of the quality of athletes that we have in our program.”
The under-21 FIVB World Beach Volleyball Championships will take place in the fall of 2005 in a location yet to be determined.
This article was submitted to YFile by Jim McLarty, sports & recreation information officer in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science.