The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds Women’s Volleyball program has lost another significant piece of their AUS championship puzzle from last season. Fourth year middle player Tanya Paulin (Bathurst, NB) has signed a professional contract with ‘Club de Lyon Saint Fons Volley’ within the N1 division in France. Saint Fons is a small city of about 15,000 located just outside of Lyon, France. Paulin graduated this past May on the Dean’s List within the Faculty of Kinesiology’s Bachelor of Science program. She is a two-time CIS Academic All-Canadian, a former Atlantic Conference All-Star and received four invites, in four years, to the Volleyball Canada National Team selection camp. In her four years Paulin appeared in three CIS National Championships, helped UNB capture two Atlantic Conference banners and advance to three AUS finals.
Paulin leaves on August 22nd for France and will be the only Canadian on her club team. As part of her contract she will be supplied with an apartment, monthly salary, travel expenses and insurance. The club will also cover the cost of her registering at the University of Lyon should she wish to enroll in classes. Her roommate is a former NCAA standout from the University of South Florida.
Before signing this contract, Paulin was considering returning to UNB to complete her fifth year of eligibility in September and enrolling within Master’s program. She joins Erica Hay (2010-11 AUS All-Star), Jill Blanchard (2010-11 AUS All-Star) and Alyson Clow as graduating members of the 2010-11 V-Reds.
Tanya Paulin commented, “"I am very excited to have the opportunity to experience professional volleyball in France. I know France will be great and I will enjoy it, but no doubt in my mind will I miss the program here at UNB. If it wasn't for the unbelievable past 4 years here at UNB and all the help from my teammates and coaches I would not be where I am today, so I owe them a huge thank-you."
Head Coach John Richard commented, “This is a special opportunity for TP and something she has always wanted to do, so I was extremely happy and proud of her when she accepted this offer. At the same time our program is losing, what I would consider to be, arguably the top middle player in our conference. This, on top of her being a Dean’s List student, a CIS Academic All-Canadian and a great teammate. As I’ve mentioned many times before … the only downfall of recruiting quality people who are tremendous ambassadors for our program and university, is eventually you have to say good-bye.”
For more information ...
John Richard jrichard@unb.ca / 506.458.7217
Tanya Paulin tanyapaulin@hotmail.com / 506.471.6698