Raya Surinx named Best Spiker at U23 Pan Am Cup in Mexico

It's been a summer to remember for Bisons outside hitter Raya Surinx.

First,t he Winnipeg native made her debut with Canada's Senior National Team, competing throughout June in the Volleyball Nations League in Ottawa, as well as Istanbul, Turkey. Surinx and Canada matched up against top talent from Japan, the Netherlands, Serbia, the Dominican Republic, Bulgaria, South Korea, Belgium, Brazil and Turkey. 

Most recently, Surinx helped Team Canada's U23 squad earn silver at the Pan Am Cup in Mexico, receiving Best Spiker recognition along the way. 

Surinx and Canada defeated the Dominican Republic in the quarterfinals, and Cuba in the semifinals, coming back from a set down in the former and two sets down in the latter. They lost to the USA 3-0 in the gold medal game. 

Surinx had a combined 30 kills in the quarters and semis, recording five key kills against the Dominican Republic in set four, while hitting 44 percent overall. Against Cuba, Surinx had seven kills in the first set. 

Overall in six games, the back-to-back U SPORTS Player of the Year had 62 total kills. She enters the 2026-26 Bisons season just 72 career kills away from tying Rachel Cockrell for the program record in the rally scoring era, with 1,390. She is also just 193 regular season kills shy of Cockrell's rally scoring era record for 1,174. Surinx's 1,318 career kills, and 981 regular season kills both currently rank sixth all-time in any era of the program.

"Raya has been proving her worth at the international level this summer as evidenced by her play and point scoring capacity at the U23 Pan Am Cup," said Bisons head coach Ken Bentley.

"She is demonstrating what we already know about her. She is an impact player and has adjusted to the next level very well given the limited amount of time she has had to compete at the next level."