Canada earned its second win in a row at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup today, recovering from one set down to defeat Australia 3-1 (18-25, 28-26, 25-20, 25-22) at Nagano’s White Ring arena.
“We started a little bit slow; Australia was playing at a very high physical level in the first set. I think it just took some time for us to get into our rhythm,” said Canada’s coach Dan Lewis.
“In the second and third set, we were making too many net mistakes, otherwise I think we would have won by quite a bit more. We’re getting some good performances from our team all round…. We did a fantastic job in the second, third and fourth set at block defence. If we can just learn to scoop up these balls that we’re touching a little better on defence and transition, we’re going to be able to play at a high level. We’re continuing to manage our serve, and now we can probably take more risk because we’re doing well at this…. It’s a difficult tournament, but the camaraderie of the group is accelerating in a nice manner.”
Canada’s Stephen Maar led all scorers in today’s match with 24 points.
Canada (2-3) now heads to Hiroshima for the next phase of the tournament, playing Tunisia on Wednesday.
Said team captain Nicholas Hoag: “Finishing the first phase of the tournament, we’re happy to have got a second win out of five games. After battling the first three games and then winning the fourth one we’re really happy with this win. We’ll keep going. We’ll play Tunisia next so we’ll start focusing on that.”
The 2019 Men’s World Cup is held in Fukuoka (Marinmesse) and Nagano (White Ring), and teams move to Hiroshima for the remaining six matches at the city’s Green Arena.
The 12 participating teams compete in a single round-robin competition over 11 match days. Three games will be played at each venue each match day.
The World Cup was last held in 2015 – Canada finished seventh overall.
Roster:
#3 Steven Marshall, Abbotsford, BC
#4 Nicholas Hoag, Sherbrooke, QC (captain)
#6 Ryley Barnes (Edmonton, AB)
#7 Stephen Maar, Aurora, ON
#9 Jason DeRocco, Winnipeg, MB
#10 Sharone Vernon-Evans, Scarborough, ON
#11 Daniel Jansen Vandoorn, Langley, BC
#12 Lucas Van Berkel, Edmonton, AB
#13 Byron Keturakis, Surrey, BC
#19 Blair Bann, Edmonton, AB
#20 Arthur Szwarc, Toronto, ON
#21 Brett Walsh, Calgary, AB
#22 Blake Scheerhoorn, Belleville, ON
#23 Danny Demyanenko, Toronto, ON
Staff:
Dan Lewis, Head coach
Lionel Bonnaure, Assistant coach
Olivier Faucher, Assistant coach
Tracy Blake, Athletic therapist
Julien Boucher, Team manager
Photo and info: FIVB
