CALGARY – Three members of the 2010 CIS champion University of Calgary Dinos along with one distinguished alumnus have been named to the Canadian senior men's national teams, Volleyball Canada announced Monday.

Setter Jeremy Wilcox (1996-2000) was named to the national 'A' team once again, while fellow setters Jay Blankenau and Ciaran McGovern join CIS championship MVP Graham Vigrass on the national 'B' team.

The teams were announced following an intensive selection camp at the men's national team home base of Gatineau, Que. by fifth-year head coach Glenn Hoag.

Blankenau, McGovern, and Vigrass were all key players in the Dinos' first national title since 1993 when they came all the way from the sixth seed to score three upset wins and take home the trophy from the 2010 tournament in Kamloops, B.C. last March. All three return to the Dinos in 2010-11.

“It's a tremendous accomplishment by all three of those guys, to commit to getting better,” said Calgary head coach Rod Durrant. “They won a national championship two months ago, and they're back in the gym training hard to get to that level. All three of them have worked really hard to get to that point, and that reflects well on our program.”

McGovern and Blankenau split the setting duties for the Dinos in 2009-10 with Grande Prairie, Alta. native McGovern taking the lion's share of the time during the regular season, earning a spot on the Canada West all-star team. Blankenau, however, replaced McGovern during the CIS quarterfinal against Dalhousie and went the rest of the way at the national championship tournament. The Sherwood Park, Alta. native was named to the All-Tournament team at the CIS championship.

“We have two extremely talented, motivated, and committed setters,” said Durrant. “Both of them continue to want to improve and get better. They make people around them better, and they push each other even more. That competitiveness between the two of them has pushed them both to a higher level, and there's no question that the combination of those two won us a national championship.”

Vigrass, meanwhile, missed much of the 2009-10 season with illness and moved to the right side from his regular middle position. Despite those challenges, however, he was nothing short of sensational at the national championship tournament, taking the MVP award along with two player-of-the-match honours after averaging better than 20 kills per match and hitting 33 percent on the weekend.

The Calgary native will likely move back to the middle to train with the national B team this summer.

The senior B team will focus on an intensive training schedule this summer, both within itself and with the A team, in preparation for next year's Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China.

Full list of players named to Team Canada: CLICK HERE.

-UC-