Men's U21 World Championship 2021

Canada start second stage with clean-slate win

North Americans outplay Bahrain to take lead in Pool H of U21 World Championship

Published 02:56, 27 Sept 2021

Canada won Monday’s only match in Pool H of FIVB Volleyball U21 Men’s World Championship 2021. The North Americans got their second-stage lower-tier campaign underway with a clean-slate victory over Bahrain at the Levski Sofia volleyball hall in Bulgaria.

Canada took early leads in each of the three sets of their game against Bahrain and held on to them to emerge with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-17) shutout. Christopher Byam led the way in the first set with seven points, including two kill blocks and the set winner, which he hammered in attack. In the second set, Bahrain stepped up their offence, but made way too many unforced errors to pave the way to Canada’s success. Canada’s coach Ryan Marsden started set three with quite a different line-up, but that only made his team even more superior on the court to close the match in an emphatic manner, with Darian Koskie’s off-the-block spike fixing the victory.

Bahrain’s outside hitter Sayed Amin Ebrahim was the best scorer of the match on 12 points, followed by teammate Abdulla Ebrahim and Canada’s Samuel Cooper with 11 each.

“We played a disciplined game. We came here to win and that is exactly what we did. We executed our goal as best as we could. I don't think the match was easy. Bahrain gave a couple of runs. We were just more prepared for this game,” Canada’s outside hitter Samuel Cooper told Volleyball World.