This year, both the men’s and women’s Canadian National Teams qualified for the 2018 World Championships. The men’s side of the tournament will take place in Italy and Bulgaria while the women will compete in Japan.
The NORCECA qualifiers are what allowed the two squads to advance to the big show next year, with the women’s side having an easy go-around while the men had to fight for it.
The women’s NORCECA qualifier was run differently than the men’s side, with three different groups being formed to play round robin tournaments. The top-two teams from each group earned their bids to the World Championships, with Canada and Cuba punching their tickets to Japan. Both teams came into the final day of play with undefeated records, both knowing they qualified prior to the match but battled for the gold medal position. Canada ran through Cuba in straight sets behind 19 Alexa Gray points with Marie-Alex Belanger adding another 17.
On the men’s side, the team had an easy go-around at the start of the competition, running through their opponents with ease. With this easy start, the men’s squad advanced straight to the semifinals where a strong Team USA team was ready to face them. After taking away a match from the Americans at the 2017 World League, Team USA got their revenge and swept the Canadians.
This sent them to the bronze medal match against Mexico, where both teams were looking to pick up the final bid to Worlds. The Canadian crew took down Mexico in four sets to earn their ticket to the championships next year. The men’s team had two players earn awards at the qualifier, in opposite, Sharone Vernon-Evans and outside hitter Stephen Maar.
Next year, the men will compete in both Italy and Bulgaria for the World Championship title from September 10 to 30 while the women will battle it out in Japan from September 29 to October 20.
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