Friday June 13th and Saturday June 14th the UBC Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre in Vancouver was filled with volleyball fans cheering and voicing their support for the two world-class teams battling on the court. The end result was a split for the teams with Canada winning on Friday and Belgium taking the win on Saturday.
In case you weren’t able to come out, or missed the Sportsnet One broadcast, we’ve posted some highlights and full press releases for both nights below. It was an amazing night of volleyball in Vancouver and we look forward to the next opportunity to host this type of international volleyball event.
World League Volleyball: Canada Makes Quick Work of Belgium
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 13, 2014 – Canada earned their fourth victory of 2014 FIVB World League action on Friday night with a 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-21) win over Belgium.
Gavin Schmitt (Saskatoon, SK) led the way for Canada with 16 points, while Fred Winters (Victoria, BC) and Gordon Perrin (Creston, BC) chipped in with another eight points apiece. Adam Simac (Ottawa, ON) also provided some big points for Canada, as he led all players with four block points.
In the first set Canada jumped out to the early 4-1 lead and never looked back, as Belgium struggled to find consistency in their attacking game. A balanced Canadian attack and solid team blocking played a huge part in Canada’s opening set which set the tone for the rest of the match.
Belgium’s inability to find any offensive rhythm made things easy for Canada tonight. “I think that we didn’t play our best game tonight,” said Belgium’s Captain, Frank Depestele.
“It was difficult for us today to get into the game; in the first set we got behind. Then we got a little bit into the game, but I think our serve and our side-out was not working well. Tomorrow we will be better.”
Even though Canada was clearly the better team on Friday night, Canada’s captain, Fred Winters knows tomorrow will be a different game. “Obviously we know that Belgium can play much better tomorrow but it was fun to play in a game like this,” said Winters. “I think we needed it. We had a hard two games in Belgium and it’s fun to play a game like that where your offense is flowing, you’re not making a lot of mistakes but we have to forget about this game now because our goal is to get six points from the weekend so we can take over first place in our group.”
Winters received praise from his coach after tonight’s game, and hopes he can continue his consistent play on Saturday night, “I thought Fred had a really good match tonight,” said Head Coach, Glenn Hoag.
“It was probably his best match so far in World League. I think on attack we could have given him more balls. Overall our block defence was good. Our serving was ok but, we need to become a better serving team, we’re not a great serving team.”
“I expect Belgium to recover from this and play much better. We had some really good matches in Belgium. Both teams are fighting hard and I think it will be this type of match tomorrow. So we will focus on that now that this is over.”
Tomorrow they’ll look to play off the crowd’s energy even more at UBC’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, something they didn’t have in Belgium last week. Saturday’s game begins at 5 pm, Pacific time.
Report by Kyle Donen for Volleyball Canada
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World League Volleyball: Belgium Rebounds with a 3-1 Victory Over Canada
Vancouver, British Columbia, June 14, 2014 – Belgium took down Canada 3-1 (22-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-19) on Saturday night, and regained first place in Pool C of the FIVB World League.
After looking disinterested in yesterday’s game Belgium was able to rebound in a big way on Saturday. Bram Van De Dries and Sam Deroo led the way offensively for Belgium, collecting 23 and 17 points respectively. Van De Dries was also a difference maker for Belgium from the service line tonight, as he rattled off three aces in the win.
“We played better than yesterday, that’s for sure,” said Belgium, team captain, Frank Depestele. “All the players yesterday were very disappointed; we travelled 20 hours to make a performance like this. So I think we proved today that we could play well. We put Canada into problems with our serve and block and defense. I think it is important to have a performance like we did today to give us confidence for the future.”
The serve and pass game was a struggle for Canada all match long and it prevented them from having any kind of offensive rhythm tonight.
“Congratulations to Belgium. They did what we knew they would do,” said Canada’s captain Fred Winters (Victoria, BC). “I think a big key for us was the start of the sets. Going down three, four to one, five to one; it’s too big of a hole. It stops us from playing aggressively and that hurt us today. We started really poorly in almost all the sets and they’re a young team but they’re really experienced. They all play in good leagues so once they get that four or five point lead it’s really hard to make up so that was what hurt us tonight.”
Belgium showed how dangerous they could be when playing with a lead and the pressure they put on Canada’s passing proved to be too much.
“We did have some problems in receiving but some choices were terrible,” said Canada’s Head Coach, Glenn Hoag. “On some occasions our setting was bad, we didn’t allow our guys to hit the ball high enough. We cannot rely on Gavin (Schmitt) all the time. It’s impossible at this level of play, because then it becomes too simple. Our offense was too simple, and Belgium just deserved to win. They dominated the three sets they won.”
Gavin Schmitt (Saskatoon, SK) had a big night for Canada in a losing cause, grabbing 18 kills, two service aces and two solo blocks but, as coach Hoag previously mentioned there was little contribution from the rest of the Canadian squad. Gordon Perrin (Creston, BC) was the only other Canadian player with double digit points, finishing with 12.
Canada will now turn its attention to Australia next weekend in Edmonton, as the team looks ti rebound from tonight’s loss in Vancouver. Canada is second in Pool C with 10 points trailing Belgium, who leads the way with 13, after tonight’s win.
Report by Kyle Donen for Volleyball Canada