The Canadian opposite was among the six players standing out in the statistical categories in the Preliminary Phase
Published 06:24, 13 Jul 2026
A key player in the Canadian national team, Van Ryk was both the top scorer and the best attacker in the Preliminary Phase
Canada's historic campaign in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) 2026, which took the country's national team to the Finals for the first time, placed star opposite Kiera Van Ryk among the top players in the tournament so far.
Van Ryk was among the six players selected for the VNL Dream Team and the only one to be picked in two categories. The selection reflected the players' performances in the statistical categories during the tournament's Preliminary Phase, which was completed on Sunday.
The VNL 2026 Dream Team features players from six different national teams.
The 27-year-old opposite was instrumental in Canada's fifth-place finish in the Preliminary Phase. She scored more points than any other player in the tournament, and her 271-point production helped her climb to seventh place among the all-time VNL top scorers. Van Ryk scored 20+ points in nine of her 12 appearances and had a season-high 28 at the end of the first week against Japan.
Naturally, most of Van Ryk's points in the VNL were produced on offense - as many as 226, to an average of 18.8 per match, the second highest in the tournament. Her 43.88% success rate is remarkable for a player with such a high usage rate, and she surpassed the mark of 20 kills in a single match on five occasions, most notably in a third-week encounter against Olympic champions Italy, when she tallied 26.
The 23-year-old middle blocker embraced the responsibility of leading Brazil in the absence of captain Gabriela 'Gabi' Guimarães and showed again that her blocking skills are at another level in international volleyball. One year after tying the VNL record of blocking points in a single season, she topped the charts in the Preliminary Phase with 42 stuffs, getting eight of those in her first match of the season against Belgium.
The 23-year-old Olympic and world champion played a couple of different roles for Italy in the VNL 2026, starting the tournament as an outside hitter before returning to her original opposite position. The changes didn't alter Antropova's ability to make an impact from the service line, as she emerged as the tournament's top server with a whopping 33 aces, nine more than Van Ryk. Antropova fired aces in each match she played, registering six against both Czechia and Belgium.
The 24-year-old playmaker was one of the standouts in Ukraine's first-ever VNL campaign, steering their offense with her steady hands and reliable distribution. Sharhorodska was on par with some of the top setters of international volleyball and overcame them in the standings with an impressive 410 successful sets. She was busy during the entire Preliminary Phase, but took her game to another level in the third week, when she registered 69 sets against the Dominican Republic, the second-highest mark in VNL history.
The 24-year-old libero was a bright spot in a French team that couldn't keep the growth curve demonstrated in the last few seasons. A Paris Olympian, Gelin took charge of the team's backcourt and was by far the best defensive player in the Preliminary Phase, leading the digging charts with 203, an impressive 26 more than the second-placed player. The French libero got to double digits in digs in all but one of her 12 appearances and was on fire in a match against the United States in the opening week, in which she tallied a whopping 34 digs, setting a new VNL record.
The 23-year-old had her first VNL campaign as Serbia's starting libero and didn't disappoint, standing out mostly in serve-receive. A relatively new face at the international level, she was constantly targeted by opposing serves and handled them well, posting the league's highest mark of 115 successful passes and obtaining a respectable success rate of 35.71%. Gočanic saw the most action in the first week, when she delivered 61 accurate passes across her team's four matches.
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