Canadian Janie Guimond dives to keep the play alive in Sunday’s win over the U.S. Virgin Islands in world volleyball championship qualifying at the Hershey Centre.
Canadian Janie Guimond dives to keep the play alive in Sunday’s win over the U.S. Virgin Islands in world volleyball championship qualifying at the Hershey Centre.
The Canadian men’s volleyball team closed out round-robin play at the world championship qualification tournament Sunday with a straight-sets victory over Costa Rica at Mississauga’s Hershey Centre — 25-14, 25-16, and 25-12.
The teams will play again Monday for the gold medal and a berth in the FIVB world championship in Poland this fall.
“This morning we had a really long and tough training session, so the guys stayed focused and concentrated for this game,” said Glenn Hoag, Canada’s head coach. “Tomorrow is one more step that we need to go through to get to the worlds.”
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
Canada’s Gavin Schmitt was the top scorer with 14 points, Toontje van Lankvelt added 13 and Jason DeRocco finished with 12.
“Costa Rica was not bad, and they have a couple of good players, but we were prepared,” said Schmitt. “We did a lot of jumping this morning — we practised hard — it’s a long tournament and there are still things that we need to work on. We’re looking forward to tomorrow.”
Richard Smith Hall was Costa Rica’s top performer with six points.
Canada’s women’s team also advanced to the gold medal match after beating the U.S. Virgin Islands 25-12, 25-9, 25-11 in the final game of round-robin play.
Dana Cranston of Fort St. John, B.C., scored 20 points while Shanice Marcelle of Victoria added 11. Kyla Richey of Robert’s Creek, B.C., contributed with 10. Canada will face Mexico, which beat Jamaica. The women’s world championship will take place in Italy this fall.
“We got the job done and are looking forward to tomorrow,” said Arnd Ludwig, Canada’s coach. “It will be a lot tougher in the final. We saw that yesterday with Mexico. So we have to be awake and aggressive and can’t let our guard down at all. We have to be sharp from the first to the last point.”
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