Canada struggles in opener, but looks ahead to day two of VNL

MENDOZA, Argentina, June 01, 2019 - Today Canada’s men’s team plays Portugal in Volleyball Nations League and will attempt to find its first win, after an opener loss Friday evening.

It was Bulgaria over Canada 3-1 (25-20, 26-24, 19-25, 25-17) in this VNL opener for both sides.

"We did some good things at times, but we are far from our best volleyball,” explained head coach Glenn Hoag. “We struggled with our offense. Our serve and block were decent but our defense wasn’t very good tonight. The team was disappointed, but we need to keep our focus on finding solutions. We have great potential."

Bulgarian captain Nikolay Uchikov was the match top scorer with 27 points. Top scorer for Canada was Sharone-Vernon Evans with 22 points; followed by Graham Vigrass with 13.

"We have to work a lot of our offense and be more efficient. It’s only the start, we have a long way ahead, but it’s a very disappointing loss for our team. We have to play better in offense and defense as well, we just didn’t play well,” said Canada’s captain, Gord Perrin.

The last time Canada played Bulgaria it ended in a five-set win for Canada at the World Championships in 2018..