Volleyball Canada – Ruse, Bulgaria, September 17, 2018 – Canada experienced its first loss today at the 2018 FIVB World Championship to Olympic champions Brazil 3-1 (25-22,19-25, 25-23, 25-18).
 
Canada drops to second place in Pool B, with nine points. The Netherlands has 11 points, but Canada still has a match to go, against France, tomorrow.  Brazil and France are third and fourth with eight points each.
 
“I thought we played well in most aspects of the game except for serving; we couldn’t put enough pressure on them,” said Canada’s captain Gord Perrin, after today’s match. “We had a balance between making too many mistakes and then we had to put the ball in, and we weren’t aggressive enough. They were able to be free and play and spike well, so I think that was the biggest difference.”
 
Brazilian veteran and two-time Olympic medalist Wallace de Souza finished as a top scorer for Brazil with 24 points.

Perrin topped the charts for Canada with 18 points, followed by Sharone Vernon-Evans with 16. Nicholas Hoag and Graham Vigrass contributed 11 each to Canada’s effort, and Canada performed better in blocking, with nine points compared with Brazil’s three.
 
Brazil’s only loss in pool play was to the Netherlands (Canada beat the Dutch team in its World Champ opener 3-0), and the South Americans play winless China tomorrow.
 
This is the fourth consecutive Brazilian victory over Canada in World Championship history, but Canada did beat Brazil earlier this year in Volleyball Nations League.
 
Head coach Stephane Antiga also noted that Canada’s serving was not efficient today:  “It was a good game and Brazil played very well. We knew they were able to play like that…  they were very efficient, and our serving was not working well today.”
 
Perrin said the team was not fazed by the Brazilians : “The whole summer we have been confident to play against anyone, and I don’t think that will change. One loss is not going to take anything from us – we’re going to put our heart out on the floor every time.”
 
About the tournament:
The 19th edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championships takes place in both Italy and Bulgaria from September 9 to 30, 2018. 
 
The tournament features a total of 24 teams. There are two teams from South America, four from Asia, 10 (including the hosts and defending champions Poland) from Europe, three from Africa and five from the North, Central America and Caribbean zone.

In the first round, the 24 teams are spread across four pools of six teams playing in a round-robin system. The top four teams from each pool will advance to the second round featuring four pools of four teams playing in four cities.
 
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