Volleyball Canada – The men’s team wrapped up the XVI Hubert Jerzy Wagner Memorial Tournament in Kraków, Poland, with a 3-1 loss to France today.

“It is a very difficult tournament, with three very strong opponents,” said Canada’s coach Stephane Antiga. “I am pretty satisfied with the quality of our play during the second (Russia) and third (France) game; we started very well against France today, but they played better in the end. Overall, I really liked the way our guys behaved on the court…. We are having some troubles with injuries and sickness with a couple of players, so I’m hopeful that we can soon come back from this.”

On Friday, the team fell to Poland and then battled to a tie-break set with Russia on Saturday.

Canadian results:
Aug 24 – POL – CAN  3-0 (29-27, 25-17, 25-19)
Aug 25 – RUS – CAN  3-2 (25-17, 25-22, 22-25, 21-25, 21-19) 
Aug 26 – CAN – FRA – 1-3 (25-18, 22-25, 22-25, 16-25)

Poland topped the standings of the 2018 edition of the Wagner Memorial, followed by Russia, France and Canada. Canada’s Jay Blankenau was named “best setter” of the tournament.

The annual event is named for Hubert Wagner (1941-2002) –  a former Polish international and Mexico City 1968 Olympian. As a coach he led Poland to the 1974 FIVB World Championship title, followed by gold at the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games.

Canada is looking ahead to 2018 World Championships, which begin early next month, but first will play in the Ljubljana Volleyball Challenge in Slovenia, Sept. 6-8, against teams also preparing for the Worlds.
 
Roster:
TJ Sanders, London, ON
Gord Perrin, Creston, BC
Steven Marshall, Abbotsford, BC
Nicholas Hoag, Sherbrooke, QC
Lucas Van Berkel, Edmonton, AB
Jay Blankenau, Sherwood Park, AB
Jason DeRocco, Winnipeg, AB
Sharone Vernon-Evans, Scarborough, ON
Daniel Jansen VanDoorn, Langley, BC
Ryan Sclater, Port Coquitlam, BC
Graham Vigrass, Calgary, AB
Blair Bann, Edmonton, AB
Arthur Szwarc, Toronto, ON
Eric Loeppky, Steinbach, MB
 
Staff:
Head coach: Stephane Antiga
Assistant coach: Dan Lewis
Team manager: Julien Boucher
Therapist: Melissa Healy
Statistician: Lionel Bonnaure
Strength coach: Louis-Jean Tremblay
 
The long list for the World Championships can be found here: http://italy-bulgaria2018.fivb.com/en
Volleyball Canada
Jackie Skender
Director, Communications
613.794.7676
jskender@volleyball.ca

Photo credit: http://fundacjawagnera.pl