Canadian Men Win Group, but Fall to Finland in Five

TAMPERE, Finland, July 3, 2016 – Canada ended its FIVB World League Group 2 campaign with a loss to its host, Finland in five sets: 3-2 (25-22, 18-25, 25-20, 21-25, 15-13) in Tampere on Sunday. 
 
Undefeated until today, Canada still wins its group (eight wins and 24 points) and advances to the Final Four in Portugal.

On Sunday, Sauli Sinkkonen and Jan Helenius of Finland scored 15 points each. The top scorer for Canada was Nicholas Hoag with 18 points. Before the match Finland had still a chance to qualify for Final Four, but they needed a 3-0 win over Canada.

“We’re disappointed by the end after winning eight matches in a row obviously,” said Canada’s captain, Fred Winters. "You have to give Finland credit. They played very well. They put a lot of pressure on us with their service. I don’t think we were prepared as well as we could have been for that.”

Canada’s coach Glenn Hoag summarized: "I think it was an exciting match for fans. Finland played well. We missed a lot of executions on simple things, we had mental lapses as well. That is going to happen so this is good for me to see so we can try to fix it on our road to Rio. Every game counts now for our preparation. Obviously, it wasn’t enough for a win but now we need to turn our focus to Portugal next weekend."