Canada and Brazil warm up for VNL start

Canada and Brazil got things going ahead of their debuts in the Volleyball Nations League 2023 as the country’s men's national teams played a pair of friendly matches in Gatineau, Canada, on Thursday and Friday.

The duels held at the Canadian national team training facility had different outcomes, with the hosts prevailing in the first duel and the South Americans showing improvement to get the win in the second one.

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Canada were dominant in the first encounter between the teams, securing a 3-1 (25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 25-23) victory in the first match of new head coach Tuomas Sammelvuo with the team.

Opposite Ryan Sclater was in top form in the match, tallying 19 points (17 kills, two blocks). He got great help from outside hitters Nicolas Hoag and Stephen Maar, who added 13 and 12 points, respectively. Brazil had outside hitter Adriano Xavier, with 15 points, and middle blocker Octavio Pinto, with 12, as their main scorers.

“We have to stay focused and keep going in order to be ready for the VNL,” Sammelvuo said after the match. “We will take it day by day and keep building.”

On Friday, Brazil fought back and got a four-set (25-21, 24-26, 25-18, 25-23) win, leaving Gatineau with a positive result.

Opposite Alan de Souza was the team’s top scorer in the match with 16 points (14 kills, two blocks), three more than outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli and two more than Adriano and middle blocker Flavio Gualberto. Canada got 17 points from Maar, with middle blocker Pearson Eshenko adding another ten.

“We were able to make a lot of tests in these two matches and they were extremely important for us,” Brazil’s head coach Renan Dal Zotto commented. “We felt that some of our players were able to make big steps forward in terms of getting better match rhythm. It was great that we came here early and got to play these matches with Canada.”

Canada will be on the court on Tuesday, the opening day of the VNL 2023 for the men, when they face NORCECA rivals Cuba at 20:00 local time (00:00 UTC, Wednesday). Brazil’s debut will be on Wednesday, at the same time, against Germany.

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