Canada beats Germany in a five-set thriller
 

OTTAWA, Canada, June 8, 2019: Canada edged Germany 3-2 (23-25, 29-27, 25-18, 23-25 and 15-12) after more than two hours and a half of intense play in front of an energetic crowd in week two of the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League at Ottawa’s Arena at TD Place.

After three consecutive losses to the German team at major events, Canada took revenge from their four-set defeat at the same venue 12 months ago.

Canada equalled their longest run of victories in the VNL and they will aim to for a record five consecutive wins on Sunday against Serbia.

Sharone Vernon-Evans was once again Canada’s top scorer with 24 points and Nicholas Hoag contributed 18. Graham Vigrass and Jason DeTocco were also in double digits with 15 and 13, respectively. Simon Hirsch led Germany’s performance with 21 points and Christian Fromm added 11.

"I’m really happy with the win. The team played solid volleyball. The German team is a really strong team, especially in the serving aspect. They have great players, so for us to beat them it wasn’t an easy match. I didn’t expect any easy match. We can now turn our attention to tomorrow (Canada plays Serbia)," said Canada's coach Glenn Hoag. 

“We figured the match would be close. Germany is a strong team; they have big middle blockers so it’s difficult to spike against them. We stuck with it, we had a bad couple first sets but it was a really good team win so we’re happy,” commented Gordon Perrin, the team captain.