Three different continents. Three different men’s volleyball tournaments.
Valencia grad Kyle Ensing has had a busy summer.
First, in June, he trekked to the Czech Republic for the Federation Internationale de Volleyball Men’s Volleyball U21 World Championships with Team USA. Although USA wasn’t able to crack the top 10 finishers, Ensing had a few stellar performances.
In pool play, the Long Beach State rising junior led USA to a 3-2 win over the Czech Republic. He scored 21 points in the contest. Against Egypt in the ninth-place semifinals, he executed 20 kills and 14 digs in the 3-2 loss.
July brought the NORCECA Pan-American Cup Championship in Canada, where Team USA fared much better with a fifth-place finish in the tournament.
In a 3-2 quarterfinal loss to Puerto Rico, Ensing scored 16 points. In the fifth-place match against the Dominican Republic, he led the team with 18 points, 15 kills, two blocks and one ace.
After getting swept by the Dominican Republic in pool play, Team USA took the match in five sets.
“Our expectation was to come here and compete; and I think our guys learned a lot about what it takes to compete at this level,” U.S. Head Coach Rob Neilson told USA Volleyball. “We would have liked to place a little bit better, but there were some good lessons learned for our guys.”
On August 20, Ensing will begin his third tournament of the season, the Summer Universiade in Taipei, Taiwan.
The Olympic-like event features more than 9,000 student-athletes from over 170 countries.
As a freshman at Long Beach State, Ensing finished the season second on the team in kills with 354 and dogs with 229.
With the Vikings, he was a two-time Foothill League Player of the Year and helped the team to the 2015 CIF-Southern Section Division 2 finals.
