Volleyball Canada – Sapporo, Japan, September 29, 2018 – Turkey swept Canada 3-0 (25-18, 25-13, 25-15) on the first day of the FIVB Women’s World Championship at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Centre on Saturday.
 
This year’s FIVB Volleyball Nations League runners-up Turkey led in every aspect of the match, including an 11-3 margin in aces and 27-14 in digs.
 
Turkey’s Seyma Ercan picked up 14 points in a solid team performance. Meryem Boz was the second highest scorer with 13 points and captain Eda Erdem Dundar contributed 12. 
 
Despite errors on the Canadian side, Autumn Bailey, Alexa Gray and 19-year-old Kiera Van Ryk led Canada’s attack, but Van Ryk was the only Canadian player to get into double figures with 12 points.
 
“I am upset not with the result, but with the performance because we entered the court very nervous,” Canada’s coach Marcello Abbondanza told www.fivb.com

“It’s the first time to play (at a World Championship) for many of our players and many don’t play in professional championships or at a high level so it’s very difficult to play Turkey because Turkey played a good match. I think my regret is our behaviour on the court when we went down and we did not find a reaction in a technical way. … I hope tomorrow we will show a different performance.”
 
Canada’s team captain Kyla Richey agreed that nerves played a role in the loss today:  “I think it was obvious that nerves got the best of us today. The first breakdown was in reception and we couldn’t get back in rhythm after that. 

We are disappointed, as we had success against this team last month in exhibition games, but more so because we lost a good opportunity to play a great team in this World Championship. However, we aren’t dwelling on this game – we are focused now on moving forward and going up against Italy.”
 
Canada’s next match is against another experienced side, Italy, on Sunday.  See schedule here: http://japan2018.fivb.com/en

About the tournament:

The world’s best 24 teams are in Japan following a qualifying process, which started in 2016. The 24 countries competing in the 2018 FIVB Women’s World Championship are split according to the following: South America (two), Asia (five), Europe (eight), Africa (two) and NORCECA (seven).

The teams have been divided into four pools of six teams playing in a round-robin system with the top four teams in each pool advancing to the second round. The tournament takes place in four cities, with Canada’s pool B in Sapporo for the first round.

Roster:
#1 Jessie Niles, Turner Valley, AB
#2 Autumn Bailey, Burlington, ON
#4 Kyla Richey, Roberts Creek, BC (team captain)
#5 Danielle Smith, Beaverlodge, AB
#7 Brianna Beamish, Surrey, BC
#8 Alicia Ogoms, Winnipeg, MB
#9 Alexa Gray, Calgary, AB
#11 Anna Feore, Stratford, ON
#12 Jennifer Cross, Scarborough, ON
#16 Shainah Joseph, Ottawa, ON
#19 Marie-Alex Belanger, Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez, QC
#22 Megan Cyr, St. Andrews, MB
#23 Emily Maglio, Cranbrook, BC
#25 Kiera Van Ryk, Surrey, BC

Staff:
Head Coach: Marcello Abbondanza
Assistant Coach: Richard Schick
Assistant Coach: Vincenzo Mallia
Therapist: Giorgio Caiterzi
Statistician: Tommaso Barbato
Team Manager: Chrissy Benz

• Official web site: http://japan2018.fivb.com/en
• Official web cast: https://welcome.volleyballworld.tv/ (by subscription)
• Follow Volleyball Canada on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for updates
• Follow the women’s team account on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/canwvb/

 
Photo: FIVB

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