Canadian volleyball team qualifies for Tokyo Games with weekend victories
The Lower Mainland has been very good to Canadian teams trying to qualify for the 2020 Olympics.
The Canadian men’s volleyball side punched its ticket to Tokyo later this year by winning a lastchance tournament over the weekend at Pacific Coliseum.
The national women’s softball and men’s field hockey squads qualified for Tokyo at tournaments in Surrey and West Vancouver, respectively, last year.
Coach Glenn Hoag’s volleyball team beat Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-21, 25-15, 25-15) on Sunday to finish the four-team round robin event unbeaten. The key match was Saturday, when Canada rallied to defeat Cuba 3-2 (22-25, 22-25, 25-12, 25-21, 15-9).
“There’s no word for this game,” team veteran Nicholas Hoag said after that contest. “We focused in on our game plan because there were some specific things we had to do and we executed it really well. We had to stay aggressive and we got the win in the end.
“The crowd helped us so much. It was a crucial part of our win. Mentally, it’s hard to fight after being down two sets to zero. It’s one of the best crowds I’ve had in Canada.”
Stephen Maar collected 21 points against the Cubans. Coquitlam’s Ryan Sclater had 20 for the Canadian cause. Sclater is one of four B.C. natives on the 14-man Canadian side, along with Creston’s Gord Perrin, Abbotsford’s Steven Marshall and Langley’s Daniel Jansen Van Doorn.
Sclater told reporters after the win over Puerto Rico that “this weekend was a product of lots of years of hard work. Lots of people are seeing us for the first time or once a year, but to be able to come into the game and be confident that we’re going to go to Tokyo, that’s not something you create in the moment. It takes years of hard work.”
Canada beat Mexico 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-17) to open the event Friday. Canada is the No. 7-ranked team in the world. That topped the group at the Pacific Coliseum, followed by Cuba (No. 18), Mexico (No. 21) and Puerto Rico (No. 24).
The Canadian men were fifth at the 2016 Rio Olympics. They qualified for that event in a last-chance tourney in Japan.
The Canadian women were at a similar last-chance tournament in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, over the weekend and failed to qualify for Tokyo after finishing 1-2. They beat Mexico 3-1 (21-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-23) on Sunday for their lone victory. The team has five B.C. players: Surrey’s Kiera Van Ryk, Roberts Creek’s Kyla Richey, Surrey’s Brie King, Creston’s Alicia Perrin and Coquitlam’s Emily Maglio.