June 26, 2025: Canada fought to the last point, but USA came out on top at home in second-week men’s Volleyball Nations League action at the NOW Arena, Hoffman Estates, near Chicago.
The final score was 0-3 (23-25, 22-25, 28-30).
“Tonight was much better (than against Brazil),” said Canada’s head coach Dan Lewis, “but it’s going to get increasingly more difficult to get a win as we go deeper into this event. We are going to have to apply ourselves to the maximum now. Once we solidified our reception and service tonight, we were able to play at a much higher level and we put more pressure on them. … There was a difficult call (by the referee) in the third set, but you have to proceed. We’re going to rest now and go for wins against Poland (June 27) and China (June 29). We don’t look back.”
Attack points were even 41-41. In blocks, it was 7-3 in favour of Canada, and 6-2 in serving points for USA. However, USA earned more points from Canadian errors, 30-23.
Team captain Fynn McCarthy led Canada’s scoring effort with 13 (8 attacks, 4 blocks and an ace).
“We were battling the whole time,” said McCarthy in the post-match VBTV interview. “I feel like we battled harder at the end of each set when we should have been playing our top level the whole way through…. We need to grow, experience things like this and learn from them.”
Canada is now 14th in the standings, with two wins. USA has four wins so far in VNL.
Link to standings: https://en.volleyballworld.com/volleyball/competitions/volleyball-nations-league/standings/men/
VNL week two Roster (Men)
1 – Daenan Gyimah – Middle Blocker – Scarborough, ON
2 – Luke Herr – Setter – Winnipeg, MB
3 – Jesse Elser – Outside Hitter – Calgary, AB
5 – Brodie Hofer – Outside Hitter – Langley, BC
10 – Ryan Sclater – Opposite – Port Coquitlam, BC
11 – Xander Ketrzynski – Opposite – Toronto, ON
13 – Max Elgert – Setter – Edmonton, AB
15 – Jackson Young – Outside Hitter – Toronto, ON
16 – Jordan Schnitzer – Middle Blocker – Surrey, BC
18 – Justin Lui – Libero – Pickering, ON
22 – Isaac Heslinga – Outside Hitter – Orangeville, ON
33 – Fynn McCarthy – Middle Blocker – Lake Country, BC (Captain)
97 – Landon Currie – Libero – Coldstream, BC
99 – Skyler Varga – Outside Hitter – Muenster, SK
Week 2 Results (Chicago)
Canada v Brazil 0-3 (22-25, 17-25, 17-25)
Canada v. USA 0-3 (23-25, 22-25, 28-30).
Week 1 Results (Quebec)
Germany v. Canada 2-3 (25-23, 19-25, 25-21, 23-25, 11-15)
Argentina v. Canada 3-2 (25-22, 21-25, 14-25, 25-22, 15-8)
Canada v. France 2-3 (22-25, 27-29, 29-27, 25-21, 6-15)
Bulgaria v. Canada 0-3 (24-26, 23-25, 19-25)
Global tournament web site: https://en.volleyballworld.com/volleyball/competitions/volleyball-nations-league/
Volleyball Canada Media Contact:
Jackie Skender
jskender@volleyball.ca
Mobile: 613-794-7676