Canada Drops Belgium In 5-Setter In Pool B Opener

2017 FIVB WORLD LEAGUE

• June 2nd-July 8th, 2017
• Tournament site
• Results
• Pool B1
• SPC Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia

Editor’s Note: While teams are divided into 4-team pools for pragmatic reasons on each of the 3 weekends of the tournament, each teams’ record goes into a single table to determine who advances to the knockout stages. The pool standings presented here are to help keep up with each pool only, and on each day of the tournament, we will post a summary that includes the full table as well.

Serbia rose to the top of Pool B with a throttling of the United States, while Canada outlasted Belgium in a five-set thriller to earn a win.

Pool B1 Standings:

Canada def. Belgium 3-2 (25-22, 19-25, 26-24, 23-25, 15-13)

Canada jumped out to an early two-set lead, but Belgium battled back in an entertaining opening to Pool B play. After a 25-22 Canada win in the first set, Belgium rolled to a 25-19 win to even things up. Those would turn out to be the most lopsided sets of the entire match, as the final three sets all came down to just two points apiece.

Bram Van Den Dries was the top individual scorer, putting up 26 for Belgium. But Canada got 21 from John Gordon Perrin and 17 from both Brendan Barnes Ryley and Graham Vigrass, showing off depth to outlast Belgium.

Meanwhile Daniel Jansen Vandoom put up 20 blocks as Canada out-blocked their foe 65-50 for the match.

Serbia def. USA 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-20, 25-21)

Team USA kept it close, battling back to a 1-1 split after two sets, but Serbia wore down the Americans to win 3-1 and take over the top spot in Pool B with three points.

Marko Ivovic scored 17 for Serbia and Uros Kovacevic 15. The U.S. only got 13 from Sander Taylor.

Serbia outspiked and outserved the U.S., 96-87 and 97-85, respectively. That included four service aces from Ivovic.

Belgium gets Serbia tomorrow, while the U.S. will take on Canada. The next day, today’s winners battle, with Canada taking on Serbia.