In what has sent them out of the tournament, the Canadian women’s team ended the preliminary round of Volleyball Nations League with a 3-0 loss (26-24, 25-17, 25-17) to Belgium in Rimini, Italy.
Remarkably, it was Canada’s fifth straight defeat, leaving the team 14th of 16 teams with a 3-12 record in its tournament debut.
Local reports have it that Kiera Van Ryk of Surrey B.C. collected a team-high 15 points in the losing effort, while Belgium’s Britt Herbots topped all scorers with 23.
Speaking to newsmen after the tie, Canadian captain Jennifer Cross of Scarborough, Ont said “This match individually showed a lot of fight — we were going to the very end”
“I think that we actually did a really good job during this tournament. We have a very young team, so we didn’t know what to expect. We showed good volleyball and hyper-energy. We go for it all the time. We are building our squad. The result is not what we wanted, but there are a lot of lessons to learn.”
Official records have it that only the top four clubs advance to the semi-finals.
Although final rankings are still to be determined, the first-place United States (14-1) is guaranteed to advance. Joining the Americans is Brazil, Japan and Turkey.
