Volleyball Canada – July 09, 2016 : Canada will be hoping that second time’s the charm as it stands on the verge of securing a second spot at the Olympics in Rio after winning its pool at the FIVB World Continental Cup on Sochi, Russia.
 
The teams of Josh Binstock/Sam Schachter and Grant O’Gorman/Sam Pedlow beat Russia on Saturday, and will team up to try and secure that berth on Sunday against the winners of Saturdays evening’s quarterfinals.
 
The series went down to a golden set and O’Gorman and Pedlow secured the victory with a 15-6 win over Oleg Stoyanovsky and Artem Yarzutkin.
 
“Sam totally dominated that whole set, I think he had eight blocks or something like that,” O’Gorman told the tournament’s website about his teammate’s performance. “It was unreal. I have never seen him play with so much fire. It was awesome.”
 
The day started with Binstock and Schachter being upset in straight sets by Nikita Liamin and Dmitri Barsouk (18-21, 15-21). Needing a victory to keep Canada’s hopes of winning the pool alive, O’Gorman and Pedlow forced the golden set decider by beating Stoyanovsky and Yarzutkin in straight sets (21-19, 21-18).
 
The benefit of winning the pool is that Canada can rest on Saturday evening while the pool runners-up battle through extra matches to advance.
 
Canada faltered at this same position at the NORCECA Continental Cup, losing to Cuba in the finals so they’re hoping they’ve learned lessons from that event that will carry them over the line on Sunday.
 
Belgium won the other pool. Canada now faces Venezuela on Sunday.  
 
Should the Canadians earn a berth, they would have to face each other in a match to determine who gets to go to Rio next month. Canada’s Ben Saxton and Chaim Schalk have already secured one berth in men’s beach volleyball, and the maximum is two per gender per country in Rio. 
 
If Canada gets a second spot, it would be the first time since beach volleyball became an Olympic sport that Canada will have qualified a full allocation of teams. The pairs of Jamie Broder/Kristina Valjas and Heather Bansley/Sarah Pavan will be playing in the women’s event.
 

Volleyball Canada media contact:
Jackie Skender
E-mail: jskender@volleyball.ca
Phone: 613.794.7676