North Carolina State University Athletics
Cyr Selected to Train For Team Canada
5/26/2012 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
May 26, 2012
WINNIPEG, Manitoba – NC State rising senior setter Megan Cyr was selected Friday night by Volleyball Canada as one of 32 athletes who will train for the next month to be part of two Canadian national teams.
After a week of intensive tryouts, Cyr and 26 other players were invited to join five returning members of Team Canada at the national volleyball training center at the University of Manitoba, which is about an hour from Cyr’s hometown of St. Andrews.
"The tryouts were extremely competitive and I got a glimpse of what the next month is going to be like," Cyr said after learning she had made the training squad. “I’m excited for what is to come and I am hoping to gain from this overall experience.”
Cyr will continue to work with setters coach Scott Koskie, who was a member of the men’s national team from 1995-2009. She and the other selected players will have an intense training schedule over the next four weeks, practicing six hours a day, six days a week.
“I’m hoping to learn a lot over these next four weeks and come back to Raleigh for my final year at NC State a stronger and more consistent setter,” Cyr said.
It’s not a new experience for Cyr, who was a member of the 2006 Canadian Youth national team and of the 2008 Canadian Junior national team. She’s familiar with the other players on the training team and the coaching staff.
“I think that playing for the youth and junior national team helped me at tryouts because I was not nervous and knew that if I gave 100 percent I wouldn’t have any regrets at the end of the week,” Cyr said. “I think that I’m fortunate to be part of this team and have the full-time training center an hour away from my house.
“I grew up watching Team Canada compete at the University of Manitoba and could only dream that one day I would be there. To even have the opportunity to compete for a spot on the ‘A’ team and possibly play in front of my family and friends in July is an indescribable feeling.”
On June 26, 12 to 15 players will be selected for the Team Canada ‘A’ team, which will compete in exhibition matches against Argentina at the University of Manitoba on July 7-10. The team will then travel to Juarez, Mexico, to participate in the Pan Am Cup from July 11-21.
The remaining players will make up the Team Canada ‘B’ team, which will represent Canada in the 2013 World University Games in Moscow, Russia.
“This is a great accomplishment for Megan and a great accomplishment for our program,” said head coach Bryan Bunn. “Just by training with the best players in Canada, Megan is going to have an opportunity to get even better over the next month, play against great competition and come back to Raleigh an even better leader in her final season.”
In just two seasons at NC State, Cyr has been a significant contributor to the Wolfpack’s turnaround under Bunn, who is preparing for his third season at NC State.
She has played in 235 consecutive games as the Wolfpack’s primary setter. She has 2,425 assists in her two years, which ranks sixth in school history. She has twice posted top-10 single-season totals for the Wolfpack, with 1,133 in her sophomore season and 1,292 in her junior season.
She will return in the fall as one of two seniors, along with Alexa Micek.
Last year, Cyr was instrumental in leading the Wolfpack (20-13) to its best record since 1996 and a school-record eight ACC victories. She not only led the team in assists, she also had the team’s best hitting average (.427), was second in digs (336) and third in blocks (78).
