Volleyball Canada – Nagano, Japan, October 2, 2019 – Russia made a comeback from two sets down to beat Canada 3-2 (23-25, 16-25, 25-17, 25-23, 15-10) in a five-set thriller at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup on Wednesday at Nagano White Ring arena.
 
“It was an excellent match by our team,” said Dan Lewis, in his first major tournament acting as head coach. “I probably need to manage a couple of situations differently for a better chance to win in the end, but for me I’m really proud of the team, the way they played and fought today.”

Ryley Barnes (16 points) and Steven Marshall (12 points) were top contributors for the Canadian side.

• Highlights: https://youtu.be/ONfncCeDmNM

Canada has been experimenting with several different lineups of players. “It was a young lineup so it was fun to see the guys go out there and play against one of the best teams in the world and get as much experience as they can,” said team captain Nicholas Hoag.

“Today was a good game. We played even better than yesterday (against Brazil) on block defense and we were also quite efficient hitting after that defense and those blocks. We also made less mistakes, especially on the service line. We put them in trouble with our float serves and it was unfortunate we couldn’t convert the fourth set and win 3-1, but it was a good game overall, and we’re going to strive on that hopefully and keep going on this road.”
 
Canada has a quick turnaround, and will play Iran on Thursday morning in Japan, which is Wednesday at 10 pm ET.

• Streaming schedule: www.cbc.ca/sports

The 2019 Men’s World Cup is held in Fukuoka (Marinmesse) and Nagano (White Ring), before 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.

Official web site:
http://worldcup.2019.fivb.com/en
 
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: FIVB

Volleyball Canada media contact:
Jackie Skender jskender@volleyball.ca
Mobile: 613-794-7676