OVA News

Canada musters a three man block against Brazil

The Canadian junior men’s volleyball team won their first match against Poland Friday in the FIVB Junior World Championships, being held in Pune, India, from July 31 – Aug. 9. The team was competing in a very tough pool that included past gold medal winners Brazil, Russia and Poland.

Rudy Verhoeff and Cambridge Ontario’s Joren Zeeman led the way for Canada, with the team winning the match 3-2 with scores of 19-25, 25-21,15-25, 25-20, 15-11 and despite their falling behind two sets to one.

“I told our players to get ready for a long match against Poland,” said head coach Chris Green. “Both teams played well during the match…For our first game we had moments of brilliance and moments of serious lapse. We stuck to our main group and they worked out the kinks to succeed today against a bigger stronger and more game-ready opponent.”

Saturday, Canada played  the highly ranked Brazil who had defeated Russia in three straight sets. Canada put Brazil on the mat, but the defending champion managed to get away with a straight set 25-21,25-22, 25-13 victory. Canada had surprised the Brazilians putting up a tough fight in the first two sets. Perhaps bubbling with confidence over its victory against Russia, Brazil had been a bit too casual in its approach to the Canadians.

Early in the match Canada rattled Brazil with its high block. In fact, Brazil made more mistakes than Canada. It gave away 23 points to Canada’s 18. Still the defending champion Brazil got away like a professional thief with breakaway points. As the Canadian coach Chris Green said later, “You give them one chance they break away. It is a pretty good team. It has been going on for years. They did not make mistakes when it counted. That is Brazil.”

Brazil adopted more deceptive spiking to beat the Canadian triple block. Brazil was four points down in the second set in which Canada played with better rhythm and Zeeman was getting the block. So was Rudy Verhoeff. Where Canada really failed was in the serve and Brazil’s reception improved midway through the first and second sets as they began to rally.

After two grinding sets, Brazil came back into its own and took the third set to shut the doors on Canada.

Sunday, It was do or die battle for both Russia and Canada as the loser was to be eliminated from the race for the next round. Canada once again made an aggressive start and showed its intentions. Having taken 8-6, 16-13 leads, if Canada could not win this first set then it was showing its inexperience. Even at 24-23 Canada fumbled badly.

Canada’s real game was seen in the third set which it won despite Russia’s effort to reduce the lead to 12-16 at the second technical time out. With Zeeman and Perrin spiking past the Russian block Canada raced to a comfortable victory and it looked like the match was heading to be a five setter.

Canada again had a good chance in the fourth set when it took a 16-15 lead. Its block was working as Vigrass and Verhoeff combined well. Canada even put up triple block to shut out Russia. But Kalandadze was the real threat with his steep shots  as Canada found them too difficult to stop. Russia prevailed over Canada 32-30, 25-16, 17-25, 25-22 to notch up its second win in three matches. For Canada Joren Zeeman, who was the best scorer, collected 17 points from 35 attacks and John Perrin and Graham Vigrass scored 13 and 12 points each.

Russia and Brazil have eliminated Canada from the race.

Canada Match Schedule | Pool D
July 31: Canada vs. Poland (19-25, 25-21, 15-25, 25-20, 15-11)
August 1: Canada vs. Brazil (21-25, 22-25 13-25)
August 2: Canada vs. Russia (30-32, 16-25, 25-17, 22-25)

fivb.org