Canada
The Canadians, who returned this year to the 16-country World League for the first time in five years, finished with a 3-9 record for third spot and a 2013 World League berth. Finland will have to wait for the results from the other pools and see if they must go through a qualification for the next year’s World League.
“We didn’t win as many matches in this year’s World League as we wanted but third place is satisfying for now,’’ said Canadian team captain Fred Winters of Victoria.
Gavin Schmitt of Saskatoon was once again firing on all cylinders on Sunday with 24 points including four services aces. Gord Perrin of Creston, B.C., added 15 and Toon Van Lankvelt of Rivers, Man., had his best match of the tournament with 11.
‘’We had a young team on the court and it was a great experience for the guys,’’ Canada’s head coach Glenn Hoag of Gatineau, Que., told Sportcom. ‘’Especially that it was an important match and we were facing the Finns at home.’’
The hosts had a good start to the match taking the first set 25-21 with an excellent fighting spirit and great support from the Finnish crowd.
However in the second set the Finnish spikers started to make simple mistakes and Canada was leading the set at the technical timeouts 8-7 and 16-12. The Canadians continued their fierce attack and eventually took the set to draw level.
The Canadians started the third well, hitting aggressively. They moved into a 10 point lead and it proved too much for the Finns.
Finland put up more of a fight in the fourth, but Canada couldn’t be stopped. Their block and attack proved too much as they moved further and further ahead, eventually clinching the set to win the match.
‘’We achieved a big goal with this win,’’ said Hoag. ‘’It was a great team win and the guys were patient. We were stable after the first set and dominated the rest of the match. We felt we kept pace with big teams like Brazil and Poland and that’s how our team will continue to grow.’’
The prestigious 16-country World League tournament now in its 23rd year, takes place every summer, reaching all corners of the planet, offering worldwide TV coverage and the biggest cash prizes in the sport.
