A new role and a new team proved just perfect for Burnaby’s Justin Yee.
As a rookie with the Capilano University Blues, the Moscrop grad found his comfort zone and proceeded to be a big piece in the Caps offence.
Yee was named the PacWest League’s rookie of the year, after the setter-turned-power hitter finished seventh in the league for digs, 10th in both aces and kills, and eighth overall in total offence.
He was named to the league’s all-rookie team as well, joining former Moscrop teammate and Douglas College outside hitter Jerry Yan.
Yee was just one of three Burnaby natives to get PacWest volleyball award recognition on the weekend, as Capilano’s Sarah Hughes, a St. Thomas More alumna, was a first team all-star on the women’s side, guiding the Blues to a third-place finish at the provincials.
Byrne hits lucky seven
Burnaby Lakers’ star Josh Byrne continues to ripple the twine and make waves back east as a senior with the Hofstra Pride men’s field lacrosse team.
On a night where he scored a career-high seven goals and set up two others to lead his team to a 20-4 non-conference win over the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Byrne was named to the 2017 Tewaaraton Award Watch List.
It came a few days after he scored three times and set up two others to lead his squad past Princeton 10-8.
The 22-year-old attackman spearheaded the program to a 3-0 season start with his third straight multi-goal game, giving him 13 goals and seven assists on the year.
A New Westminster native, Byrne is in his second year at Hofstra, after transferring over from Nassau Community College, where in 2015 he was the National Junior College Athletic Association’s attackman of the year.
UBC swimmer nets bronze
A pair of Burnaby natives helped the University of B.C.’s swim team break free from the crowd to claim gold in the men’s division at the U Sport swimming championships in Sherbrooke, Que.
Burnaby’s Hau-Li Fan collected bronze in the 1500-metre freestyle race, completing the event in 15:14.78. The second-year UBC student trailed Calgary’s Peter Brothers for second place by three seconds, while Eric Hedlin of Victoria established a new U Sport championship time of 14:42.99.
Burnaby’s Stefan Milosevic registered a fifth-place showing in the men’s 100m free, and a seventh-place result in the 400m free.
