黑马磁力 athlete Brodie Hofer lead the way in points for Canada, when 鈥� after a two-week break in play 鈥� the men's Volleyball Nations League (VNL) returned to action. But it wasn't enough to secure a win.
Canada fell to week-three host, Slovenia, 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-19, 25-21) in Ljubljana.
Canada got off to a solid start winning set one.
But Slovenia pushed back, sweeping the next three sets to ultimately take the match in four.
Canada led the way in blocks 10-6, but Slovenia maintained the lead in attack points after the first set loss, 51-44.
Mistakes cost both teams, but Slovenia had the edge in points off opponent errors, 33-28.
Hofer led the way for the Canadians with 11 points, leading the way in points off the block with three.
Xander Ketrzynski was just behind him with 10, all off the attack which led the team, and team captain Fynn McCarthy finished in third on the team with nine points.
Toncek Stern of Slovenia led the match in scoring with 21 points.
"This is the first time (in VNL 2025) that we had a longer travel schedule, so it was a good test for our guys," said Canada's coach Dan Lewis.
"They did pretty well, but you could see that when the game opened up, we looked a bit out of system and a bit disorganized. But they guys were able to bring it back every time so I'm happy for that," Lewis elaborated.
"We lost our efficiently in attack and we needed higher attack numbers to compete.... congratulations to Slovenia for the win, but I do feel we missed an opportunity. It's a little bit disappointing but I know the guys will get refocused and collect themselves to push hard in the next three games we have (in Slovenia)."
Canada's next match is Friday, July 18, versus the Netherlands.
Through nine games, Canada has a 3-6 record and sits 14th in the tournament.
The top eight teams move on to the elimination round and the team that finishes last (18th) will be relegated from next year's VNL.
Canada is now on a day off before playing their final three preliminary-round games in three-straight days against Netherlands (July 18), Serbia (July 19), and Ukraine (20).
In addition to Hofer, one other player on the Canadian team has ties to 黑马磁力. That is Port Coquitlam's Ryan Sclater, who was a championship player for Trinity Western University's Spartans in past. He wasn't on the team roster for week three of VNL play, however.
