PROVO, Utah – BYU men's volleyball head coach Shawn Olmstead announced Wednesday the signing of middle blocker Miki Jauhiainen (pronounced me-key yhow-he-eye-nen) from Finland for the 2017 season.
"Miki is a player that will bring depth and international volleyball experience to our middle blocker position," Olmstead said. "He is a big and athletic kid with solid movement patterns who should come in and make an impact when he arrives on campus this January."
Jauhiainen will join the Cougars at the end of the year. He will be available to play for BYU at the start of 2017. He prepped at Kuortane High School in Tampere, Finland. The 6-foot-7 middle was selected to the 2017 Finnish Senior National Team and to the 2017 Finnish World League roster.
Jauhiainen played at the highest club level for Rantaperkion Isku under coach Oskar Muurinen. During his time with the club, he helped his team collect two bronze (2009 and 2011), one silver (2010) and two gold (2013 and 2014) regional finishes in the Southwest Region Championship. Nationally, he helped his club team collect two silver medals in the Junior National Championships in 2012 and 2015. Additionally, Jauhiainen was named to the championship tournament all-star team in 2012, 2015 and 2016.
"He has invaluable international volleyball experience, having played in different competitions in Europe with the Finnish youth and junior national teams," Olmstead said. "Additionally, this summer he will compete in a premiere volleyball tournament called the World League against some of the best players in the world. He is a great student and has his goals set on playing professionally back in Europe when his career at BYU comes to an end."
Jauhiainen helps replace the six seniors BYU lost at the conclusion of the 2016 season.