Canada ended its strong Volleyball Nations League 2024 campaign with a loss to world-ranked number two Japan today in Łódź, Poland.

It was a tight battle right off the mark, but Japan had an answer for all that Canada brought to today’s quarterfinal contest. The score was 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 26-24).

Japan led in attack points 42-39, Canada in blocking 8-7 and Japan in ace serves 7-5. Canada made more errors 21-14. Japan’s Yuki Ishikawa led all scoring with 26 points (including 3 blocks and 3 aces). Arthur Szwarc led Canada’s effort in scoring with 17 points. 

Earlier in the VNL preliminary phase, Canada had defeated Japan in five sets.

“VNL is over for us, and it’s difficult to accept that after having played so well and stable, we didn’t perform today and that’s the result. It must serve us for the process toward the Olympics to understand what has to be done differently and to be able to perform better under pressure,” said Tuomas Sammelvuo, head coach of Canada’s squad. 

“We proved to ourselves that we are a good team throughout VNL, and we can compete with everyone. But to compete is not our goal, the goal is to win games in the Olympics in a very tough pool, and that will allow us to move to the next stage.”

Also announced this week – Canada will be in Pool A of the Olympic tournament with hosts and defending champion France, as well as Slovenia and Serbia. Indoor volleyball at the 2024 Olympic Games will take place at South Paris Arena 1. Play kicks off on Saturday, July 27, and will continue throughout the Games. The final gold-medal match will be played on Saturday, August 10 at 7:00 a.m. ET.

VNL Standings (men): https://en.volleyballworld.com/volleyball/competitions/volleyball-nations-league/standings/men/Matches can be viewed at www.cbcsports.ca or VBTV. 

VNL Finals (Poland)

• Luke Herr – Winnipeg, MB
• Brett Walsh – Calgary, AB
• Ryley Barnes – Edmonton, AB
• Nicholas Hoag – Sherbrooke, QC
• Eric Loeppky – Steinbach, MB
• Stephen Maar – Aurora, ON 
• Brodie Hofer – Langley, BC
• Jordan Schnitzer – Surrey, BC
• Fynn McCarthy – Lake Country, BC
• Danny Demyanenko – Toronto, ON
• Lucas Van Berkel – Edmonton, AB
• Xander Ketrzynski – Toronto, ON
• Arthur Szwarc – Toronto, ON
• Justin Lui – Pickering, ON

Staff:

• Head coach: Tuomas Sammelvuo
• Assistant coach: Joao Paolo Bravo
• Assistant coach: Michael Hawkins
• Strength and conditioning: Michael Cook
• Performance analyst: Damian Musiak
• Athletic therapist: Schad Richea
• Chiropractor: Abe Avender
• Team manager: Cassandra Nicol
• Director, high performance: Julien Boucher 

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