Volleyball Canada – Ruse, Bulgaria, September 18, 2018 – France defeated Canada 3-1 (25-22, 25-21, 22-25, 25-17) today in the closing match in Pool B of the 2018 FIVB World Championship.

French star Earvin Ngapeth led his team with 22 points, including three aces. Nick Hoag topped Canada’s scoring chart with 15 points; followed by Sharone Vernon-Evans with 13 and Gord Perrin with 12.
 
A solid win would have put Canada atop the pool, but the team dropped to fourth in a tight race – still advancing to the next round, but with nine points instead of the possible 12 today. Brazil ended up winning the pool, followed by the Netherlands and France. Egypt and China are eliminated in Pool B. 
 
Canada now travels to Sofia, Bulgaria, for the next round, with some key technical elements to work on, according to Canada’s coach Stephane Antiga.
 
“The difference is serving and passing,” Antiga said after today’s match. “We played very nice volleyball, but these two elements need to improve, especially in service. In the friendlies before the Worlds. and the first few games here we served very well, so we need to find our serve again. It’s probably a question of self-confidence, so now we have two days off and we are going to focus on our serve.”
 
Canada had no aces, compared with France’s eight.
 
“Our side-out wasn’t very efficient, our block defense wasn’t to the level that we wanted it to be today and of course serving; we made way too many mistakes without enough pressure on the French,” said middle Graham Vigrass. “We just have to bear down towards the end of the sets – we were there in every set except the last one, and they capitalized on a few small plays that we made mistakes on and you can’t do that against the top teams in the world.”
 
More information on the next round will be posted here:
 http://italy-bulgaria2018.fivb.com/en
 
Roster:
#1 TJ Sanders, London, ON
#2 Gord Perrin, Creston, BC
#3 Steven Marshall, Abbotsford, BC
#4 Nicholas Hoag, Sherbrooke, QC
#5 Lucas Van Berkel, Edmonton, AB
#7 Stephen Maar, Aurora, ON
#8 Jay Blankenau, Sherwood Park, AB
#9 Jason DeRocco, Winnipeg, MB
#10 Sharone Vernon-Evans, Scarborough, ON
#11 Daniel Jansen VanDoorn, Langley, BC
#16 Ryan Sclater, Port Coquitlam, BC
#17 Graham Vigrass, Calgary, AB
#18 Blair Bann, Edmonton, AB
#20 Arthur Szwarc, Toronto, ON

Staff:
Head coach: Stephane Antiga
Assistant coach: Dan Lewis
Team manager: Julien Boucher
Therapists: Melissa Healy, Luc Campbell
Statistician: Lionel Bonnaure
 
How to follow:

• Official web site: http://italy-bulgaria2018.fivb.com/en
• Official web cast: https://welcome.volleyballworld.tv/ (by subscription)
• Follow Volleyball Canada on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook #maplevolleys
• Follow the men’s team on Instagram @maplevolleys

 Media contact: Jackie Skender

Volleyball Canada
Jackie Skender
Director, Communications
613.794.7676
jskender@volleyball.ca