Canada falls to Poland in Round of 16

September 20, 2025- Poland secured its place in the quarterfinals at the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship 2025 in the Philippines. This Saturday in the city of Pasay, the finalists of the last three editions overcame Canada’s resistance in a four-set Round of 16 match. The number one team in the FIVB World Ranking will face Turkiye in one of the two quarterfinal matches scheduled for Wednesday, September 24.

Poland remained well in control of the scoreboard for most of the four sets, taking advantage of the abundant errors on the Canadian side, on the way to a convincing 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-18, 25-14) victory. Only in the decisive moment of the second set, the North Americans managed to break through the Polish domination and win the set.

Canada gave Poland 35 points in unforced errors, while their opponents committed only 16 of those. The European side also dominated in serving with 5-2 in aces, and in net defense with 10-7 in blocks.

Canada outperformed Poland in the number of successful attacks, 52 against 48. Their opposite Sharone Vernon-Evans (Sho) was the top scorer of the match. He attacked with a 57% success rate and got two blocks and one ace to finish with the highest score of the match, 23 points. Outside hitter Jackson Young, who closed the second set for Canada with a huge block, also scored 11 points in offense and finished with a total of 12.

“Obviously we are not so happy to have lost, of course, but I think there were good things in the game. Of course, they are a great team, but we know this is the benchmark where we want to be, so we have to just keep building. We definitely grew as a team throughout the tournament. With me coming later in the summer and Nick (Nicholas Hoag) coming back, I think it took time to gel, but I think we did a good job and we are taking a step in the right direction,” Sho commented after the match.

“It feels good. I definitely feel like I belong, and the guys did a good job helping me come back and welcoming me. I just wanted to try to bring what I was doing in Japan and try to help the team be the best we can.” he concluded.