May 25, 2024: Canada’s men’s team wrapped up the first week of Volleyball Nations League 2024 in Antalya, Türkiye, on Saturday with a five-set loss to Slovenia.
After the long battle, the score was Slovenia 3, Canada 2 (22-25, 25-18, 25-18, 21-25, 15-10).
Canada’s record is 2-2 after week one, and Slovenia is undefeated with one match to go in Antalya.
Though Slovenia led in most areas – attack (66-57), aces (11-3) and had fewer errors (22-27) – Canada was able to dominate in blocking (14-4) points.
“It was a huge fight in this first week; today we came to play and win against a very, very good team. We made a step forward in playing these type of teams, but in the end the difference was in service and reception. We had a lot of pressure from the service line from Slovenia and the second touch after those difficult receptions is something that we have to improve,” said head coach, Tuomas Sammelvuo. “Overall, I’m happy with this first week. There will always be things to improve, but we also got a lot of confidence and now we come back to Canada and we’re looking forward to playing the second week in Ottawa (June 4-9) in front of our home crowd.”
Opposite Tonček Štern of Slovenia was the winning team top scorer with 23 points; while Stephen Maar of Canada topped the board with 27 points (which included three of Canada’s successful blocking points.)
Setter Luke Herr told VBTV: “It was really a battle out there, back and forth, and we didn’t come on top today. Any team we play in VNL is going to be a difficult game and we just come out every match and give it our all. It was a good match overall.”
Slovenia is ranked 7th in the World Rankings but is still in the hunt for an Olympic spot. Canada is ranked 12th and is already qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics after the team’s second-place performance in the Olympic Qualifier pool last year.
Matches can be viewed at www.cbcsports.ca and check out a replay of this match on CBC TV at 4 pm EDT today (Saturday).
Week two brings the men’s team back to Canada for the Ottawa leg of VNL, from June 4 to 9 at the Arena at TD Place; and the Canadian men will play friendlies with Italy at the Centre Sportif de Gatineau on May 31 and June 01.
VNL Week 1
Luke Herr – Winnipeg, MB
Brett Walsh – Calgary, AB
Ryley Barnes – Edmonton, AB
Nicholas Hoag – Sherbrooke, QC
Eric Loeppky – Steinbach, MB
Stephen Maar – Aurora, ON
Pearson Eshenko – Banff, AB
Fynn McCarthy – Lake Country, BC
Danny Demyanenko – Toronto, ON
Lucas Van Berkel – Edmonton, AB
Xander Ketrzynski – Toronto, ON
Arthur Szwarc – Toronto, ON
Landon Currie – Coldstream, BC
Justin Lui – Pickering, ON
Reserve: Jordan Schnitzer – Surrey, BC
Staff:
Head coach: Tuomas Sammelvuo
Assistant coach: Joao Paolo Bravo
Assistant coach: Michael Hawkins
Strength and conditioning: Michael Cook
Performance analyst: Damian Musiak
Athletic therapist: Schad Richea
Chiropractor: Abe Avender
Team manager: Cassandra Nicol
Director, high performance: Julien Boucher
For VNL Ottawa media inquiries, including accreditation, please contact Jackie Skender.
For the VNL Coaching Symposium, register here.
Volleyball Canada Media Contact:
Jackie Skender
jskender@volleyball.ca
Mobile: 613-794-7676
