Attackers Kiera Van Ryk of Surrey, B.C., and Alexa Gray of Calgary each had 13 points as Canada beat South Korea 3-0 Sunday in women's Volleyball Nations League action. Van Ryk spikes the ball during a Volleyball Women's Nations League match against Brazil, at the Maracanazinho stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, May 14, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Bruna Prado
ARLINGTON, Texas – Attackers Kiera Van Ryk of Surrey, B.C., and Alexa Gray of Calgary each had 13 points as Canada beat South Korea 3-0 Sunday in women’s Volleyball Nations League action.
The Canadians won each set comfortably by scores of 25-15, 25-12 and 25-18.
Middle blocker Emily Maglio of Coquitlam, B.C., had nine points and setter Brie O’Reilly of Langley, B.C., had five aces and seven total points.
Canada dominated in attack points (44-21), blocks (8-5) and aces (9-4).
The Canadian women are still vying for a place at this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
Seven women’s teams have already qualified. The remaining five spots will go to the top five not-yet-qualified teams in the FIVB rankings as of the end of the Volleyball Nations League preliminary phase.
Canada was ranked 10th after the win over South Korea and improved to 5-3 in VNL play.
“There are no easy games in VNL,” said Canada head coach Shannon Winzer. “Coming out against Korea we wanted to put a lot of pressure on them with serve, work to be clean on block and have our attackers vary their attack in angles and shots.
“Most importantly we wanted to remind ourselves to enjoy playing the game! I think we did a pretty good job, and can find confidence going into an important round three.”
The next round is in Fukuoka, Japan, where Canada plays Italy on June 11, and then Japan, Netherlands and France.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2024.
