ARLINGTON — Life in the Volleyball Nations League continues to be long on lessons and short on victories for the Canadian women’s team.

China, which entered Friday’s best-of-five match in seventh place, edged the 16th-place Canadians 25-22, 25-15, 22-25 and 25-23 at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas.

Outside hitter Abagayle Guezen and opposite spiker Anna Smrek were Canada’s top scorers with 14 points each, while Yushan Zhuan led China with 21.

China led in attacks (59-51), ace serves (7-3), sets (130-126) and digs (97-96).

Canada made four fewer unforced errors (27-23) and had more blocks (8-4).

Canada will play the host United States on Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.

The Canadian Press

SINGAPORE — The Canadian men’s water polo team was dunked 18-9 by the United States in the opening game of preliminary round action on Saturday at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

The Americans held quarter leads of 3-0, 7-2 and 12-4.

Canada is playing in a four-team pool comprised of Brazil, Singapore and the U.S.

Canada’s next game is Monday against Singapore, while the United States plays Brazil on Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.

The Canadian Press

Arizona head volleyball coach Rita Stubbs landed two big commitments on Friday afternoon. A big name from Wildcat history and size in the middle joined the class of 2027 with the announcements of Nylah Bibby and Londyn Pope.

The 6-foot-2 Pope plays a premium position at middle blocker. Arizona tries to get one from the transfer portal almost every year. They have been successful roughly 50 percent of the time. They will go with three this season instead of the four that Stubbs would prefer.

Stubbs is addressing the future of the position through the high school pipeline. She got a late addition to the 2026 class in Marina Vosloo. Pope will follow Vosloo in 2027.

Pope plays prep volleyball for V.R. Eaton High School in Fort Worth, Tex. She played club for TAV 15 Black, but moved to Dallas Premier 16 Black this year.

Over her first two years of high school volleyball, Pope has played 158 sets with 1.3 kills per set. She has a career hitting percentage of .244.

Her offensive stats jumped considerably between her freshman and sophomore seasons, going from 0.7 k/s her rookie year to 1.6 k/s in her second year. After playing just 50 sets as a freshman, she was on the court for 108 in 2024-25. On the downside, Pope’s hitting percentage dropped from .280 to .238.

Pope has been fairly consistent with her blocking numbers. Despite a jump in the number of sets she played, she went from 0.6 blocks per set as a freshman to 0.7 b/s as a sophomore. She had 16 solo blocks out of her 75 total blocks during her second season. She also had 41 blocking errors in her 108 sets last season.

She has had some good showings in this year’s club tournaments. USA Volleyball named her to the all-tournament team for the 16 Freedom group at the 2025 Girls Junior National Championship last week. Her team came in ranked ninth, but she helped lead them to a second-place finish in 16 Freedom.

Pope’s highlights from her time with TAV can be found on her HUDL page. More recent personal highlights are on her Sports Recruits profile. Team highlights for Dallas Premier from recent tournaments can be found on the club’s Sports Recruits page.

Bibby’s name is known to every Wildcat fan. Her father Mike Bibby helped lead the men’s basketball team to its only national title in 1997.

The younger Bibby started her high school career at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale but transferred to Scottsdale’s Saguaro High before her sophomore year. She plays club volleyball for Arizona Storm Elite, which regulary produces some of the best volleyball players in Arizona. Bibby plays alongside some of the top players in the country on the Arizona Storm Elite 16 Thunder roster.

While Bibby is listed as an outside hitter and opposite on the Storm’s roster, she also lists herself as a libero/defensive specialist elsewhere. With a listed height of just 5-foot-9 or 5-foot-10, depending on the source, it’s open to debate whether she will be able to play at either pin at the Power 4 level. Her height would seem to make L/DS a more likely landing spot.

On the prep level, Bibby will be entering her second year at Saguaro but her third year of varsity volleyball. During her freshman season at Shadow Mountain, she played in 82 sets, averaging 2.8 kills per set on a .156 hitting percentage. She had 0.3 aces per set with 8.7 percent of her serves going for aces. She had a 90.1 serve percentage with 263 serve attempts.

On the defensive side of things, Bibby had 0.2 blocks per set and 2.5 digs per set as a freshman. On serve receive, she received serve 4.0 times per set with 0.3 reception errors per set.

Bibby did not play as many sets after transfering to Saguaro her sophomore year, but her stats improved. Her kills almost doubled to 5.0 per set. Just as important, she was more efficient with a .252 hitting percentage.

Her aces doubled to 0.6 per set and her ace rate shot up to 14.7 percent. The only negative movement came on her serve percentage, which dropped to 86.6 percent.

Bibby had 0.3 blocks per set in her second season, slightly better than her rookie year. Her digs were dramatically higher at 3.5 per set.

She received the ball more often as a sophomore with 5.4 receptions per set. Her reception errors also increased, going up to 0.4 per set.

Her father isn’t the only one in the family with college sports experience. Bibby’s older sister Janae Bibby played NCAA volleyball for one year at Division II Fresno Pacific in 2019.

Additional highlights can be found on Bibby’s HUDL profile.

Lead photo by Photo by Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Athletics

Former William Carey Volleyball player Lainey Brumfield has been hired as the Southwest volleyball assistant coach.

She will be working with head coach Chris Laird in the sport’s first season back on campus since the early 1970’s.

Brumfield is no stranger to the sport, bringing nearly a decade of experience to Summit. The goal of being a coach in the college ranks is one that she has had on her radar for multiple years.

“It’s a big change for my life,” she said. “I’ve been wanting to be a collegiate coach for years now.”

The volleyball journey started for Brumfield, a native of Foxworth and an alum of West Marion High School, when she began playing the sport in middle school.

“I’ve been playing for eight years now,” she said. “When I was a sophomore in high school I tried out for a club team in Hattiesburg. Eventually I moved on to play for Matrix down on the Coast. The club years were my sophomore, junior and senior years in high school.”

During that time, Brumfield not only worked on her game but also met someone who would play a big role in her career.

“I actually met the coach that influenced me the most, Kelly Pitre,” she said. “She was my biggest influence as a coach. Someone I looked up to and who I wanted to be as a coach. She also helped me get in contact with a few colleges. Moving into my senior year I got an offer from (William) Carey to go play. It felt like home for me. I ended up going there playing indoor and beach.”

The want to coach for Brumfield came during her senior year in high school and by the next year, she was coaching club ball, a job she held throughout the next two years before spending the 2024 season at Petal Middle School.

Brumfield feels like her age and being able to relate more with the girls on the team is a big advantage for her.

“I feel like am very mature for my age,” she said. “I feel like with that I won’t get into a friendship with the girls and I’ll keep it professional but also I’ll be able to relate their current life events that they are going through because college can be a big change.”

Being a former student athlete herself, she understands the importance of academics and will help implement it on the team.

“At the end of the day, you are a student athlete and the student has to come first before the athletics,” she said. “Volleyball will not last forever. You have to have your degree to go further into life and into your future job. My goal is to make these girls ready for their future job and life.”

Coach Laird said that he is very happy to bring Brumfield on board adding that with her experience, she can be a huge help in pushing the renewed program it in the right direction.

“It is great that there is someone who played on the collegiate level both indoor and outdoor,” he said. “The thing that I love about Lainey is that she is super organized and she will relate well with our players. She has already been in the club season and realizes the importance of reaching out to club coaches as well as high school coaches to improve our recruiting area.

He also says that she brings both lead-by-example and vocal leadership qualities.

“We will sit down and and discuss what the program will look like, where it needs to go and then after that, I expect her to be vocal on the coaching staff as well as being on the court to demo some stuff.”

SINGAPORE – The Canadian men’s water polo team was dunked 18-9 by the United States in the opening game of preliminary round action on Saturday at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

The Americans held quarter leads of 3-0, 7-2 and 12-4.

Canada is playing in a four-team pool comprised of Brazil, Singapore and the U.S.

Canada’s next game is Monday against Singapore, while the United States plays Brazil on Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2025.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.