Surrey, BC – Nikki Cornwall is a former high performance volleyball athlete turned university coach and business owner. Born in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Nikki was identified as a targeted athlete at a young age, and by the age of 13, Nikki was selected for Volleyball British Columbia’s High-Performance Program. She went on to compete for Team BC between 2008 and 2013. Most recently, Nikki was hired as an Assistant Coach for Women’s Volleyball at the University of Fraser Valley (UFV) in British Columbia.
Nikki played collegiate volleyball at Trinity Western University (TWU), where she was a member of the Women’s Varsity Volleyball team and was a 2x Academic All-Canadian. Nikki was selected twice to the Conference All-Star Team and was named MVP when they won Nationals for the first time in program history in 2015. During her U Sports player career, Nikki began coaching as a volunteer with the Trinity Western youth volleyball development programs. She was also selected to the Canadian Women’s National Volleyball Team in 2015, representing Team Canada in the FISU Games in South Korea and the China Exhibition Tournament. In 2017, Nikki was named Captain of the Team en route to Taiwan for the FISU games.
Following a stellar collegiate career, Nikki was recruited to play professionally in Germany and Finland. After returning to Canada Nikki was passionate about giving back to the community and shortly founded Play Like A Pro, a private-lesson business that connects youth athletes to instructors who have pro-level playing experience. Nikki also worked as a youth coach and media director for the Academy Volleyball Club while serving as Volleyball Head Coach at the Richmond Olympic Oval from 2017 to 2019. Nikki is also the athletic development director at Volleybox, a centre that offers a wide arrange of services to volleyball athletes, teams and organizations.
I am excited to have this opportunity to coach at UFV as they enter U Sports for the first time! We’ve got a solid roster with a lot of potential and a coaching staff that is full of strong female coaches that know what it takes to be successful in CanWest. I have missed the element of coaching a team and can’t wait to get started with the Cascades in the fall!
On what appointment to University of Fraser Valley means?
Nikki begins her coaching appointment in the Fall of 2021 at the University of Fraser Valley, which competes in the Canada West conference in U Sports.
Leadership Through Sport – We Are StrongerTogether!