Canadian captain and outside hitter Nicholas Hoag, who is back with the team after not competing on the Volleyball Nations League this year, also had a tremendous performance, tallying 20 points (15 kills, four aces, one block). Middle blockers Fynn McCarthy and Daenan Gyimah added 12 and 11 points, respectively.
"I think everybody was a little bit nervous in the first set," Hoag said. "Libya play very aggressively, and if they can pass well, they're very difficult to stop. I'm glad we got the win, but we'll need to play better if we want to beat Japan in our next match. They're a great team, and we can't give them anything. We'll need to be very disciplined with our blocking, too."
The Ikhbayri brothers Ahmed and Mohamed carried the Libyan offense, with each of them scoring 17 points. The opposite had 15 kills, one block and one ace, while the outside hitter registered 16 kills and one ace.
"We are super happy," Ahmed reacted. "The result may not have been what we wanted, but we are happy with how we played. We are returning to the World Championship after over 40 years, so this is a good result, even if we didn't win. The next match will be tough too, just like this one. We'll try to keep the same mindset and fight for every point. We want to make our fans at home proud, and we know we have much more to show here."
