Canadian men lose 5th straight match at Volleyball Nations League
Sweep at hands of Slovenia drops Canada to 1-5 on season
Canada lost its fifth straight game in men's Volleyball Nations League on Wednesday in Orléans, France.
The Canadians were swept by Slovenia (25-23, 25-22, 25-14) to fall to 1-5 on the season after opening up their campaign with a victory. However, Canada has won just three total sets since.
The stop in France is the second of the season after play began in Ottawa. Canada returns to the court on Thursday for a tilt with Bulgaria at 10:30 a.m. ET with live coverage available on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
Toronto's Arthur Szwarc was Canada's leading scorer for the second straight game with 11 points, 10 of which came on attacks.
WATCH | Canada dropped by Slovenia:
But the Canadians lagged behind Slovenia, which improved to 5-1 with the win, in every team stat, scoring fewer points on attacks, serves and blocks while also committing more errors.
"Today we played two decent sets, especially the first one," Canada head coach Tuomas Sammelvuo said in a release. "We wanted to give some of the players that haven't the opportunity to play a chance today – to feel the court and to learn, and the guys answered well.
"We were there in the first set, the second was a similar story… but in the third we lacked in our attack and we couldn't side-out. We couldn't stop Slovenia's offence."
Rok Možič led Slovenia with 19 points.
Canada will next face Bulgaria on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. ET.
"What is important now is to focus on tomorrow and take good things from this game to prepare. We know this game against Bulgaria is important," Sammelvuo said.
Canada wraps up the second stage with a match against host France on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET. Watch live coverage of Canada's matches on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
