Canada took a deep breath after claiming a 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-20) victory over Bulgaria in a Pool 3 game of the men’s Volleyball Nations League 2023. With both sides among the four challenger teams sitting on just a win each before that match in Orleans on Thursday, the North Americans registered their second to step ahead in the race for survival. On a 2-5 win-loss record and five points, Canada overtook Bulgaria into the 11th place in the current standings, leaving the Europeans in 12th on 1-5 and five. Both teams are still ahead of challengers Cuba (1-4 and three) and China (1-6 and two).
VNL 2023
Canada makes important step towards VNL survival
In an all-challenger battle, the North Americans outplay Bulgaria
Published 05:16, 22 Jun 2023
Danny Demyanenko and Stephen Maar on the block against Dimitar Dimitrov
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Canada’s outside hitter Stephen Maar was the best scorer of the match with 16 points, including an ace and a block. Middle blocker Danny Demyanenko fired three aces and raised two kill blocks towards a 15-point tally. Opposite Arthur Szwarc also finished with 15 (two aces, one block). So did Bulgarian rising star Aleksandar Nikolov. Despite the loss, the Europeans outblocked the North Americans with 11 stuffs against seven, with middle Aleks Grozadnov putting away five.
Canada not only recovered from an early three-point Bulgarian lead, but also worked up a four-point lead of their own at 19-15. However, with a brilliant Svetoslav Gotsev in the middle of the net, both spiking and blocking, Bulgaria caught up and took their turn with the steering wheel, cruising on to Martin Atanasov’s block-out shot for 25-22. Similar to the first set, in the second Bulgaria came back from a three-point deficit to catch up at 19-19, but this time they stopped short of taking over. Canada kept cool and levelled the match with captain Nicholas Hoag hammering the 25-23 winner.
Nicholas Hoag in attack
After an early Bulgarian lead in the third set, Canada took control after 7-7. Outblocking the southern Europeans and with Arthur Szwarc putting away a couple of aces, the North Americans cruised comfortably towards winning the set. They opened a lead as wide as five points, but the opponents fought on to get back to within two at 24-22. However, a strong Bulgarian serve went out of bounds to end the set at 25-22 Canada’s way. In the fourth set, Danny Demyanenko aced twice in a row for Canada to set off a momentum, which the Bulgarians could not completely turn around despite Aleksandar Nikolov also hammering a couple of points directly from the serving line. The Europeans came back to within one at 21-20, but after the side-out, Stephen Maar hammered an ace and followed up with a pipe shot to bring in match point, which Szwarc converted to a 25-20 close, again with a back-row kill.
“I think we were lacking a little bit of personality for some of the past matches and that was the one thing that we really wanted to change tonight. I think we did a good job with that - everybody who played and all the guys on the bench. So that was nice to see from our point,” Maar said after the game.
On Friday, Bulgaria will take on Argentina at 16:30 local time (14:30 UTC). Canada’s next match is on Saturday at 21:00 (19:00) against hosts France.
Earlier on Thursday, Japan pocketed their seventh consecutive victory, this time in five sets over Brazil. In the last match of the day in Orleans, Slovenia will take on Cuba at 20:30 local time (18:30 UTC).
June 21 Results & June 22 Schedule.
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