CHICAGO (July 15, 2022) – Parker Van Buren (Cross Plains, Wis./Middleton), a rising sophomore outside hitter on the Loyola University Chicago men's volleyball team, is currently playing for the U.S. men's volleyball team at the NORCECA Pan American Cup Final Six in Tepic, Mexico. 
 
The Pan American Cup Final Six is route for teams to qualify for the 2023 NORCECA Continental Championship, the 2023 Pan American Games pf Santiago, Chile and the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games.
 
Also competing at the Pan American Cup Final Six are teams from Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
 
During his breakthrough redshirt freshman campaign in 2022, Van Buren finished the season ranked fourth in NCAA Division I-II play with 4.37 kills per set and earned American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Honorable Mention All-America honors, while also collecting First Team All-Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) and MIVA Newcomer of the Year recognition.
 
Van Buren's 389 total kills in 2022 were the third-highest total by a freshman in program history and he tallied double-digit kills in 19 of the 24 matches in which he appeared. His best performance of the year was a 31-kill effort, in which he hit a sizzling .521 (31-6-48) in a victory over Daemen on March 13
 
The U.S. team takes on the Dominican Republic tonight at 7 p.m. CT to wrap up round-robin play.