Name Taylor Pischke | Height 1.83 m | |
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Parents Cindy Pischke, Garth Pischke | ||
Taylor Mackenzie Pischke (born April 18, 1993) is a female Canadian volleyball player.
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Pischke was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the daughter of Garth Pischke, a two-time Olympian with Canada men's national volleyball team, and a current coach of the University of Manitoba's male team, and mother Cindy Shepherd, a Canadian Junior National team athlete and three-time CIS National Champion. Pischke first competed in rhythmic gymnastics at the national level before taking up her parents' sport at the age of 14. After attending Fort Richmond Collegiate, Pischke played university volleyball for UCSB, and later the University of Manitoba. Her departure from UCSB, California, after one semester on the indoor team, occurred because there was no opportunity to play beach during the second semester when the NCAA sand program at UCSB did not become a collegiate sport. Pischke was on a double scholarship at UCSB to play on their indoor and beach volleyball teams. With Manitoba, she won the CIS National Championship Title in 2014 making it her 7th Canadian national title in volleyball (4 indoor volleyball championships including CIS and Canada Games championships) and 3 beach volleyball championship titles.
The best volleyball player - Taylor Pischke
2012-16: Original team
Pischke played on Team Canada's beach volleyball squad with Melissa Humana-Paredes of Toronto from 2012-2016. John Child, who competed in three Olympic Games and won a bronze medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games, was the team's coach. Along with Humana-Paredes, Pischke won two bronze medals at the under 23 World Championship (2013 and 2014), and seven medals (3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze) at the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit between 2013 and 2015. Both reached the semi-finals at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto and the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia.
Pischke also appeared in Sportnet Magazine's 2013 issue of "Beauty of Sport". and in 2016 was an advocate of the Dove Campaign "My Beauty My Say". She is currently finishing studies at the University of Manitoba in the Faculty of Science and has been the recipient of many academic awards including Sport Manitoba's prestigious Princess Royal Pan Am Scholarships and Milt Stegall Scholarship for community service, athletics, and a cumulative GPA above 4.0. Twice she was named Manitoba's Junior Female Athlete of the Year in 2012 and 2013 and a finalist for Female Athlete of the Year in 2013 and 2014.
In 2015 and 2016, Pischke competed on the FIVB World Tour in eleven Grand Slam and Open events, and in 2015 reached the round of 16 and a 9th-place finish at the 2015 Beach Volleyball World Championships. She competed (Aug 23-28, 2016) in her final event with partner Melissa, at the Long Beach, California Grand Slam before resuming studies at the University of Manitoba. Playing in Pool-A they lost to Maria Antonelli/Lili BRA (21-11, 23-21) and Ross/Walsh Jennings USA (21-16, 21-17) in straight sets. Playing against Carol/Ana Patrícia of BRA they won in straight sets (21-19, 26-24), placing them 3rd in Pool-A and advancing to the elimination round. The team finished 17th overall. This marked the culmination of 11 FIVB World Tour events that they played in 2016 where they finished top 10 in 4 events (Vitoria Open, Xiamen Open, Hamburg Major Series, and Olsztyn Grand Slam).
2017 with Kristina May
In January 2017, Pischke began playing with new partner, Kristina May, who was a member of the 2016 Canadian Olympic team playing with then-partner Jamie Broder. The pair made their debut at the opening stop of the 2017 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and finished 25th.