Aggressive play key for Canadian men's volleyball team, says Calgarian Graham Vigrass
Team faces Mexico on Saturday then finishes the preliminary round on Monday against Italy
Growing up in the shadow of his older brother, Graham Vigrass learned to motivate himself to stand out from the pack.
On Saturday, the former University of Calgary Dino will put those skills to the test against Mexico when he hopes to help the Canadian men's volleyball team rebound from two straight losses at the Rio Olympics.
"He was three years older than me and way better than me at every sport so that really pushed me to compete with him or try to at least," Vigrass said of his brother Adam on the Calgary Eyeopener.
"So that's really helped me."
Canada opened the tournament with a huge win Sunday, beating the Americans 3-0 before falling to Brazil [3-1] on Tuesday and France [3-0] on Thursday.
"France kind of imposed their game on us and we didn't respond the way we want to and hope to for the next matches," said Vigrass.
"[We're] a little tired, a little frustrated about the match yesterday. It didn't go the way we wanted or expected but we got practise this morning to get ready for the match [Saturday]."
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Even though Mexico isn't considered much of a medal contender, it should be a good test for the Canadians.
"They're in our continental zone, so we play them a couple times every summer," said Vigrass.
"They're a real scrappy team and they usually don't have much to lose. They haven't won a game yet so they're probably not going to advance to the next round. They play with not very much pressure so they're always just a scrappy team to play against."
Aggressive play
That means the Canadians can't take the contest lightly.
"Just be aggressive, not wait for Mexico to come at us, we need to impose our game," said Vigrass.
"We need to serve aggressive and be really aggressive on our block defence."
This is the first time in 24 years the Canadian men's volleyball squad has qualified for an Olympics.
"It's been amazing. Just the amount of support we've got from back home has been awesome," said Vigrass.
"Before we won against the States, after our last two matches that we lost, it's really amazing putting on the maple leaf and playing for our country and getting the messages we do after matches."
It was a raucous atmosphere against the hometown Brazilians, said Vigrass, noting it was the largest crowd he'd ever played in front of.
"Before that, maybe half of that would have been the biggest crowd."
Canada finishes the preliminary round on Monday when they face Italy.
With files from the Calgary Eyeopener