NAME: Pascal Cardinal
UNIVERSITY: Alberta
CATEGORY: Student-Athlete
SPORT: Men’s volleyball
YEARS ACTIVE: 1998-2003
HIGHLIGHTS:
1999 CW and CIS Rookie of the Year
Two-time Canada West champion (1999, 2002)
CIS champion (2002)
2003 CW and CIS Player of the Year
2003 University of Alberta Male Athlete of the Year
BIOGRAPHY:
There was barely an award or a championship that Pascal Cardinal didn’t win during his five years as a student-athlete at the University of Alberta, where he played for the Golden Bears volleyball team from 1998 to 2003.
The six-foot-six Pincourt, Québec product was named CIS Player of the Year (2003), Canada West Player of the Year (2003), the U of A’s Male Athlete of the Year (2003), CIS Rookie of the Year (1999), Canada West Rookie of the Year (1999), and Golden Bears volleyball team MVP (2002 and 2003). He was selected as a CIS First Team All-Canadian (2001), Canada West First Team All-Star (1999, 2000, 2003), Canada West Second Team All-Star (2001), and a CIS championship tournament All-Star (2003).
And that’s just the individual honours.
Cardinal was part of two Canada West championship teams (1999 and 2002) and has a complete collection of medals from the national championship medal collection, winning gold (2002), silver (2003), and bronze (1999) with the Golden Bears.
When he finished his Golden Bears career in 2003, Cardinal was the team’s career leader in kills, points, and attacks. As of 2019, he still holds the Canada West record for kills in a season, recording 432 in 1999-2000. Only two other players have topped 400 kills in a season since 2000-01.
Cardinal went on to find success in both professional and international volleyball. He spent more than a decade as part of the Canadian national program and represented his country the 2003 Pan Am Games in the Dominican Republic and 2006 World Championships in Japan. As a pro, Cardinal played for teams in Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Cyprus, and Austria.
Cardinal holds a bachelor and Master of Science, having double-majored in biological sciences and chemistry at the University of Alberta before later majoring in chemistry as a grad student at the University of Manitoba. He is currently a Senior Research Associate for Gilead Science.