Ebbs earning opportunity of a lifetime with Volleyroos
Some athletes wait a lifetime for the chance to represent their country even once.
But for Keyano Huskies Men’s Volleyball student-athlete Tim Ebbs, he’s getting back-to-back opportunities to craft his game at the international level with the Volleyroos this summer.
“To represent my country for the first time was a once-in-a-lifetime experience I’m super grateful for,” Ebbs said after competing with the Senior Men’s National Team at the 2025 Asian Volleyball Confederation’s Nations Cup in Bahrain last month. “I’m just very happy that it all worked out in the end.
“Since I was a kid I always wanted to play for my country; I wanted to play professional sports and this is a step in that direction.”
The tournament was a learning opportunity, a stepping stone, for the young Ebbs. With the Keyano Huskies, Ebbs is one of the tallest players on the team and figures to be one of the team’s regular outside hitters this coming academic year, measuring in at 6’5”. Within the national squad, Ebbs ranked as one of the shortest, leading him to be slotted in as a libero.
That wasn’t news to Ebbs, who knew that position was the most likely pathway to him making the national squad at this moment.
“In Australia, national level volleyball and in Canada in the ACAC or CCAA, there’s some big guys who can hit the ball really hard, but not everybody is big and hits the ball really hard,” Ebbs said. “There will be one or two guys on each team who are the standout players.
“Internationally, when you take the best players from each country and put them up against each other, everybody’s big and everybody hits the ball really hard because if you don’t then you don’t get selected to the team.”
Following changes in international volleyball, the tournament Ebbs took part in was key to Australia’s bid to qualify for future major tournaments including the Asian Championships, Volleyball Nations League, and Olympic Games. Ebbs took stock of the experience with the tournament featuring professional volleyball players who were dialed in on their consistency with the pressure of playing the sport for a living.
“I need to jump higher, hit harder, and improve my consistency around attacking before I’m ready for international level attacking at the moment,” Ebbs continued of his development. “My passing and defence was something I’d worked hard on the last few years and that was definitely where my opportunity was going to be to represent my country. [Libero] is where I’m best suited to compete for Australia.”
While the tournament didn’t start how Ebbs and the Volleyroos expected, with back-to-back losses to Qatar and South Korea, they ended the tournament on a high. Battling for fifth place, Ebbs and company defeated Chinese Taipei 3-1 before sweeping Indonesia 3-0 to take fifth place. It may not have been the podium like they had hoped, but every win helps in terms of the team's international rankings.
“We were really eager to get a taste of international victory, having lost the first two matches of the tournament,” Ebbs said. “We knew that everyone wanted to play hard and go out with a win and some points for Australia.”
Ebbs to represent Volleyroos at 2025 FISU games in July
After his first taste of international volleyball, Ebbs is set to represent the Volleyroos for the second time in as many months at the 2025 FISU Summer World University Games this month in Germany.
“It’s a super strong with a couple guys I’m really close with so it’s going to be a fun experience,” Ebbs said. “Many of the top guys from the Australian team are too old or not in university so they’re not eligible to play in this team. Now, those more experienced guys that I was looking to and learning from over the last couple of weeks are not here anymore.”
Ebbs added the experience will be like getting thrown in the deep end, one he was eager to embrace as the opportunity to lead and navigate the pathway with teammates mostly his own age.
“The experience that I’m hoping to get out of it is maybe a little bit more of an opportunity to take a little bit more ownership and leadership in the team as us young guys try to figure out how to play together as a team.”
The 2025 FISU Summer World University Games take place July 16-27 in the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany.