Canada edges Tunisia to even record at volleyball World Cup
5-set match began second phase of men's round-robin play in Japan
Canada's men's volleyball team evened its record at the FIVB World Cup with a 3-2 victory over Tunisia on Wednesday in the second phase of round-robin play.
Set scores were 25-20, 20-25, 29-27, 20-25 and 15-12.
Sharone Vernon-Evans led the Canadians with 23 points. Lucas Van Berkel added 18.
"We're just happy that we came out and won it in five sets," said Vernon-Evans. "We need guys to step up and play well. My job is to score any way that I can."
Canadian captain Nicholas Hoag said while there were ups and downs through the match, the team had more digs and transitions than its previous matches at the tourney.
WATCH | Canada beats Tunisia in 5 sets:
"We got the victory and had the chance to rest some of our players," he said, "which you need to do in a long tournament like this. We hope to win [Thursday] against Argentina."
Tunisia coach Antonio Giaccobe said Canada was strong with its blocking and defence.
"We made some mistakes. This is the first step," he said. "I'm satisfied with the performance of my team. It is not easy to play Canada."
The 12 participating teams compete in a single round-robin competition over 11 match days.
Canada, which opened the round-robin with three straight losses, earned a comeback win over Australia on Saturday to close out the first half of the tournament with a 3-3 record in Nagano. Wednesday's game began the second phase at Hiroshima's Green Arena.
After playing Argentina, the Canadians face the United States, Italy, Poland and host Japan.
Canada finished seventh at the last World Cup in 2015.
With files from CBC Sports