Canadian women defeat Germany in straight sets in Volleyball Nations League
Team plays again on Sunday against Poland at 11:45 a.m. ET
Canada's women's volleyball team have now won two in a row at the Volleyball Nations League event in Rimini, Italy.
They struggled early at the event, dropping their first four matches before beating China on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they cruised to a straight-sets win over Germany (30-28, 27-25, and 25-14).
Canada came back from multiple German leads in the first set to win 30-28 with the set point being a beautiful spike that had no chance of a return. The second set was a back-and-forth one but they cruised to a dominant win in the third to win the match on straight sets.
Kiera Van Ryk, from New Westminster, B.C., led Canada with 18 points. Jennifer Cross, the captain from Scarborough, Ont., had 12 points with no other Canadian having double digit points. On Germany, Ivana Vanjak led them with 16 points.
WATCH | Canada defeats Germany at the Volleyball Nations League:
"We are so excited and so pumped that I feel like we could go and play another game, that's how excited we are. The last two days have been amazing, and it's been a long way to get here, but I feel like all the pieces are coming together for our team," Cross said in the post-match interview. "We have some girls who have been around together for some time and we also have a lot of new players and for them this tournament is so much international experience. I think we just needed to build up to this. ... We just kept going, keeping aggressive and to finish the match like that, this shows some serious character."
The Canadian women squad plays again on Sunday as they face Poland at 11:45 a.m. ET live on CBCSports.ca.
The annual international men's and women's competition featuring the world's top 16 teams in each gender was cancelled in 2020 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The Canadian men's and women's team will each play a 15-match preliminary round until June 23. The top four countries advance to the semifinals and finals.
Canada's men, ranked No. 10 in the world have already qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics starting July 23. They battle Iran on Thursday at 5:45 a.m. ET live on CBCSports.ca.
