Canadian men's volleyball team tops Argentina to improve to 2-0 at Olympic qualifying tournament
Canada needs to finish top-2 in 8-team group to qualify for Paris 2024
The Canadian men's volleyball team defeated Argentina in Xi'an, China, on Sunday, improving its record to 2-0 in the Olympic qualifying tournament for Paris 2024.
Fresh off of a five-set victory over the No. 11-ranked Netherlands on Saturday in which they had to battle back from a 2-1 deficit, the 14th-ranked Canadians set themselves up very well with a two-set lead, ultimately dispatching the No. 6 Argentina in four sets (27-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-15).
"It was a good victory [over Netherlands], which is very important for the team and for confidence," said Canada head coach Tuomas Sammelvuo.
Argentina entered the match sitting in second in the eight-team Pool C after defeating Mexico in three sets in the tournament opener.
Down 15-11 in the first set, Canada battled back to finally knot the game up at 19, and eventually prevailed 27-25 off of a block by Toronto's Danny Demyanenko.
The second set was again tight, although the Canadians took hold of the lead at 5-4 and never surrendered it en route to a 25-22 second set victory.
WATCH | Canada vs. Argentina, full match replay:
Stephen Maar was a major factor in Canada's quick start, racking up 10 points across the first two sets. The Aurora, Ont., native finished with 16 points overall - tied for the game-high with Toronto's Arthur Szwarc.
"In the first set, we started slow, but we came back to the game rally by rally and won the first set, which was important as that gave us a lot of confidence," Sammelvuo said. "And then when we lost the third set, it did not affect our game in any way. So bravo to the guys for that.
"We will keep calm, focus on getting better with each game, recover and have energy for the next matches."
Canada answered with a 6-0 run of their own early in the fourth set to take an 11-4 lead, and earned its most decisive set win of the tournament to clinch the victory, 25-15.
The schedule for Canada doesn't get any easier as top-ranked Poland awaits on Tuesday at 4 a.m. ET. The match will be streamed live on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Canada will also face No. 21 Belgium, No. 22 Mexico, No. 25 Bulgaria and No. 32 China in single-match round robin pool play, with the top two teams in the eight-team group earning spots in Paris next year.
The Canadian women's volleyball team finished third in its group last week, missing a chance to clinch an Olympic spot and instead will likely have to improve upon its No. 11 world ranking next summer to gain entry to the 12-team tourney.
Canada's men's volleyball team has made the Olympic Games five times, recording its best finish in Los Angeles 1984 when they lost to Italy in the bronze medal match. The Canadian men were bounced in the quarterfinals in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021.
Canada roster
#20 Jordan Canham — Avonmore, Ont.
#13 Samuel Cooper — Hamilton
#97 Landon Currie — Coldstream, BC
#6 Danny Demyanenko — Toronto
#1 Pearson Eshenko — Banff, Alta.
#2 Luke Herr — Winnipeg
#4 Nicholas Hoag — Sherbrooke, Que.
#5 Brodie Hofer — Langley, B.C.
#80 Eric Loeppky — Steinbach, Man.
#18 Justin Lui — Pickering, Ont.
#7 Stephen Maar — Aurora, Ont.
#16 Jordan Schnitzer — Surrey, B.C.
#14 Arthur Szwarc — Toronto
#12 Lucas Van Berkel — Edmonton
#8 Brett Walsh — Calgary
With files from The Canadian Press
