Canada wins a battle with Argentina to wrap up VNL weekend

MENDOZA, Argentina, June 2, 2019 - Canada came out on top of an exciting battle with the home-crowd favourites, Argentina, in the final match of the first men’s Volleyball Nations League weekend. 
The final score was 3-1 (25-21, 29-27, 25-16, 26-24).

The teams were almost equal in most areas, with Canada having the edge in blocking and the ability to close sets. Ryan Sclater was overall top scorer with 21 points, and Stephen Maar contributed 18 points for Canada. Federico Pereyra had 20 for the host team.

"We played a solid match tonight. It was a great team effort as Argentina was also playing really well,” said Glenn Hoag, Canada's head coach. "Our block defense was outstanding and (setter) Brett Walsh conducted a very good offense. I thought that Lucas Van Berkel and Ryan Sclater brought some fresh energy, and were very solid in their performance tonight. We are now moving home for the Ottawa event, and we will keep working to improve all aspects of our game.”
Canada opened with a loss to Bulgaria on Friday, and a win over Portugal Saturday. 

"We continued to improve game by game, which is very satisfying,' Gord Perrin, team captain, said of the matches in Argentina.  "This was by far our best game of the weekend. Our offense has made a major improvement and we played very well on defense. Unfortunately, we let the first match (against Bulgaria) slip, but day by day we are finding our game again. We look forward to Ottawa next weekend!”

Volleyball Nations League sees the team travelling around the globe, with the finals ending up in the US next month. Canada hosts next weekend as the men take on Australia, Germany and Serbia on familiar ground at the Arena at TD Place in Ottawa.