USA pick up speed with third consecutive VNL win

USA registered their third consecutive and fourth overall victory in the men’s Volleyball Nations League 2025, staying undefeated in front of the home crowd in Chicago this week. In Thursday’s closing match, they achieved a hard-fought straight-set win over neighboring Canada and rose to sixth place in the current VNL standings on a 4-2 win-loss record and 10 points. For Canada, however, it was the second clean-sweep loss in Chicago and they are down to 2-4 and 7 in 15^th place.

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Each of the three sets in this North American derby was very competitive with the lead going back and forth. The third set was pushed deep into overtime and Canada even missed a couple of set points before the home team could finally close it off with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 30-28) victory.

The match stats show equality in attack points (41-41), with Canada outplaying USA in kill blocks (7-3) and USA outserving Canada in aces (6-2). The biggest difference was made by the unforced errors, of which the home team committed 23, while the visitors reached the count of 30.

Opposite Gabriel Garcia fired three of those six USA aces, raised one kill block and spiked at an impressive 68% success rate to top the scorers chart with a match-high 19 points. 22-year-old outside hitter Cooper Robinson added another 13 points, including two aces. Unfortunately, at 11-9 Canada’s way in the third set, USA’s middle blocker Shane Holdaway sustained an injury and had to leave the court. Canada ‘s middle blocker and captain Fynnian Lionel McCarthy put away four kill blocks and an ace to lead his team’s scorers with a total of 13 points.

“I am just trying to have fun out there. It’s a fun sport to play,” Gabi Garcia told VBTV after the game. “But first of all, I want to say: ‘Shane, we are thinking about you, man! Get back stronger than ever.’ So, a lot of love and strength for Shane! He’s going to come back. We are a team of fighters. We were there all the time. We didn’t give up… I think as long as we keep fighting and have that fire in our eyes, it is going to be a nice VNL for us.”

Another six VNL matches are coming up on Friday. Once again, the competition day will serve off in Burgas, where Ukraine will take on Japan at 15:00 local time (12:00 UTC).

Volleyball Nations League 2025: full schedule and results

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