Nov. 10, 2022:  Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team won its semi-final match today and will play for gold at the 2022 Sitting Volleyball World Championship in Sarajevo on Friday.

In the semi, Slovenia fell to Canada 0-3 (14-25, 16-25, 21-25) this afternoon. In the other women’s semi-final, Brazil defeated USA 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-17), and the South Americans will play Canada in the gold-medal final on Friday at 16:30 local time (10:30 am EST).

“Our team, staff included, has worked tirelessly to get us in this position,” said player Jennifer Oakes (Calgary, AB).  “To be able to compete for a gold medal for Canada with this group is so exciting. We fought for every point in our semi-final match against Slovenia, and plan on bringing that mentality against Brazil tomorrow. We have faced tough opponents in this tournament, who continue to push us to adapt as the games go on. I’m so proud to be a part of this program, we have continued to grow and support each other.”

Head coach Nicole Ban said: “That was a well-earned semi-final win today! We executed our game plan; serving aggressively and attacking strong. Now we are on to our first-ever World Championship final where we are guaranteed a medal and our best-ever finish. It will be a tough final against Brazil as they won the other semi-final, playing a great match against USA today. We are ready to compete and find our game once again.”
 
Men win five-set thriller

The Canadian men’s sitting volleyball team concluded its 2022 Worlds campaign with an exciting showdown for 11-12 ranking. In the first two sets, Poland edged out Canada, but the Canadian men’s team came back to complete a reverse sweep 2-3 (26-24, 26-24, 14-25, 17-25, 14-16) winning the match and 11th place overall. Canada’s men’s team was 16th at its last World Championship (2010) appearance. 

“Our team today played with so much grit and pulled out a clutch five-set win to finish the World Championship,” said Jeff Smith, men’s head coach. “I am proud of the way we ended and proud of this team. We came to Bosnia to send a message that we deserve to play the best teams in the world. We can only go up from here.”

Team captain Doug Learoyd (Edmonton, AB) agreed: “The growth our team has shown over the past year is phenomenal. We have shown the ability to compete with the best teams in the world and I look forward to seeing the continued growth as we head towards our Paralympic qualifier in May.”
 

• All matches are streamed live on World ParaVolley’s YouTube channel.
• Click here for Canadian Team rosters: https://volleyball.ca/en/news/sitting-volleyball-teams-looking-ahead-to-world-championships
• The official tournament updates can be found here: https://www.worldparavolley.org/2022-world-paravolley-sitting-volleyball-world-championships/

Volleyball Canada Media Contact:
Jackie Skender
jskender@volleyball.ca
Mobile: 613-794-7676