Canada's men's volleyball team earns spot in Olympic qualifier

Canada's men's volleyball team defeated Puerto Rico on Wednesday in Corborda, Mexico to advance to the semifinals of the NORCECA Continental Championship.

Canada swept the match 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-23) to secure a spot in the "final four" and, most importantly, earned a berth in the zone's Olympic Qualifier to be held in early January.

"It was a very long summer for us, and our final objective was to qualify for the second qualifier and I'm happy with that," explained Canada's coach Glenn Hoag. 

"Playing Puerto Rico is always a great game because they are a good team with a lot of experienced players and young players as we saw in the third set."

Canada's Gord Perrin was the top scorer with 15 points, Nick Hoag chipped in with 11, while Justin Duff and Steve Marshall contributed six and five, respectively. 

Eddie Rivera scored six points for Puerto Rico. 

Canada out-blocked Puerto Rico 8-5, and both teams finished tied in aces 2-2.

"Now we know that we are in the top four, we can breathe at sigh of relief," said Canada's team captain Fred Winters.

"We have a really good opportunity to win the tournament, so we'll move forward from here."  
 
In their previous match, Canada dominated Honduras in straight sets (25-13, 25-10, 25-10) to kick off the tournament.

The last time Canada faced Puerto Rico was in July at the Pan Am Games in Toronto, a contest Canada won 3-1. 

Canada recently returned from the World Cup in Japan, where the top two Participating teams in Mexico are all attempting to qualify for Rio from North, Central America and the Caribbean Volleyball Confederation regional event, with the exception of the U.S., who have already qualified.

The semi-finals will be held on Friday