University of Portland head coach Jeff Baxter has been named an assistant for the Canadian Women's Volleyball National Team, Volleyball Canada announced this week. Baxter recently completed his first year as head coach of the Pilots and led the program to its best season in school history.

Baxter joins the Canada Volleyball technical staff under head coach Tom Black, who was hired in February. Black is also the head coach of the University of Georgia Bulldogs.

"I am very honored and excited for the opportunity to assist Team Canada," Baxter said. "I am eager to get to work with the athletes and staff we have in place. I would like to thank Scott Leykam, Karen Peters, and our team here at the University of Portland for allowing me to take on this new role, alongside my role here at UP, and continue to grow."

"We are very excited about the addition of Jeff to our National Team coaching staff," Black said. "It has been an honor for me to watch and be alongside his development as a coach, and I'm thrilled to work with him again this summer. Jeff is a learner, a tireless worker, and a relentless competitor who coaches for the right reasons – to be good to and for his players. There is a ton of work to do, but he is up for it, and we all can't wait to get started."

Canada's upcoming international season will be used to prepare and qualify for the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Baxter will join the team for various training camps and competitions throughout the summer including the NORCECA Challenge Cup hosted by Canada May 31-June 2. The winner will qualify for the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL) Challenge Cup Final to be held June 26-30. The team will also compete at the 2019 Pan American Cup, scheduled for July 4-14 in Lima, Peru.

The FIVB Olympic Games Qualification Tournaments will be held from Aug. 2-4 and include six different pools of four teams. Canada, Korea and Mexico will join host Russia in Pool E. The pool winner will earn automatic qualification for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Olympic qualification process will continue in January 2020 with each of the five continental confederations organizing its own Olympic qualification tournament to advance one team to Tokyo 2020.

Baxter came to Portland as an assistant coach in 2016 under Brent Crouch. When Crouch was hired to be the head coach at USC in January of 2018, Baxter was promoted to head coach. In his first year at the helm he led the Pilots to 20 wins, including a 12-match winning streak to open the season, both program Division I records. The Pilots received votes in the AVCA Coaches' Poll for the first time and reached the quarterfinals of the National Invitational Volleyball Championships (NIVC) in the first-ever postseason appearance for the program.