Canada opened the second week of men’s Volleyball Nations League action with a hard-fought victory over Cuba on Tuesday night at TD Place.
The 10th-ranked Canadian squad, coached by Tuomas Sammelvuo, has already qualified for next month’s Paris Olympics, but is trying to peak for the Summer Games by playing hard in Ottawa.
Canada beat ninth-ranked Cuba 25-21, 25-27, 25-20 and 28-26 to win the best-of-five match 3-1.
Canada dominated Cuba on the block (18-6), but both teams made 25 errors.
Eric Loeppky of Steinbach, Man., was Canada’s top scorer with 22 points, while Stephen Marr of Aurora, Ont., had 20 points.
Marlon Yant Herrera led Cuba with 23 points and Miguel Angel Lopez Castro added 18.
“This is the most organized Cuban team I’ve played in a long time. They have incredible spikers. They were missing some people at a stage at VNL where everybody is starting to hurt a little bit,” said Marr.
“For us, it’s super important to stay together. This is an example of when team organization generally beats gifted spikers. I am really happy how we came out against a strong team. With each match, we are starting to play better and better. It’s a good sign.”
Coach Sammelvuo was pleased with his team’s defence.
“We had 18 blocks against a very physical team and the guys executed well. Another key factor was the attack against a big block. We were very efficient, with a few mistakes. This is a great victory, and we want to improve for the next game.”
Canada will play 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Argentina on Thursday, followed by matches against the United States (Saturday) and Serbia (Sunday).
Also in Ottawa this week are national teams from Italy, France and Netherlands.
VNL matches carry extra importance this year as teams who have qualified for Paris 2024 are preparing for that tournament and other teams are still competing for a berth via rankings.