Canada Wins, But Belgium’s Sweep Forces Tie In Pool B1

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.

Canada topped the United States to move to 2-0 in Pool B1, but Belgium swept Serbia to move into a tie at 4 points apiece.

Pool B1 Standings:

Canada def. USA 3-2 (23-25, 25-19, 18-25, 25-23, 15-11)

A back-and-forth marathon of a match between North American rivals ended in a come-from behind Canada win. The United States took the first set, but Canada fired right back. The same thing happened over sets 3 and 4, but Canada surged to win the decider 15-11.

That was thanks to 17 points from Bradley Gunter, along with 15 from Friday night’s hero John Perrin. The top Americans matched them almost exactly with 17 for Ben Patch and 14 for David Smith, but Canada also had Graham Vigrass (12) and Stephen Maar (10) in the double digits, while the Americans only had Garret Muagututia (10).

The win puts Canada in the driver’s seat in this pool, having beating Belgium yesterday.

Belgium def. Serbia 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-23)

Belgium took care of business against Serbia after a 5-setter against the Canadians yesterday. Sam Deroo had 15 points and Bram van den Dries 13.

Though Serbia actually outspiked (40-35) and outserved (5-4) Belgium, they also committed 15 more errors, which was the key factor.

Serbia’s Nemanja Petric and Drazen Luburic had 10 points apiece, keeping things close, especially in a third-set that came down to just two points.

Tomorrow, the United States plays Belgium, while Serbia gets Canada to round out the pool.