Burlington volleyball ace signs with Portugal's Klub Kairós

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect that Palermo attended Corpus Christi Secondary School in Burlington. 

Burlington’s Arielle Palermo has signed to play professional volleyball in Portugal next year.

The 22-year-old libero signed with Clube Kairós, based in Ponta Delgada, Portugal, for the coming season.

Palermo represented Canada at the 2022 world championships where Canada went 5-4 and advanced to the second round of qualifying for the first time. Only a five-set loss to Poland prevented Canada from reaching the quarter-finals. Canada earned its best result, finishing 10th.

Palermo also played for Canada in the Volleyball Nations League the past two years.

The Corpus Christi Cathlic Secondary School graduate played at Queen’s University where she was a two-time Ontario University Athletics all-star and a member of the OUA all-rookie team as a left-side hitter.

She established herself as one of the best servers in the country, leading the OUA and finishing third in Canada with 57 service aces in 2020.