Canada tops Belgium in thrilling FIVB World League match
Canucks win final set after blowing 2 sets to none lead
Stephen Maar produced 24 points and 19 spikes as Canada held on to beat Belgium in five sets on Friday in FIVB World League Group 1 play.
Canada came out on top 25-23, 25-13, 24-26, 22-25, 15-10.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BELvsCAN?src=hash">#BELvsCAN</a> 2-3 (23-25, 13-25, 26-24, 25-22, 10-15) Win for Canada! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/drama?src=hash">#drama</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIVBWorldLeague?src=hash">#FIVBWorldLeague</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/maplevolleys?src=hash">#maplevolleys</a> <a href="https://t.co/tbOvurcwBR">pic.twitter.com/tbOvurcwBR</a>
—@VBallCanadaGraham Vigrass and Daniel Jansen Vandoorn added 16 points each for the Canadians, who will face France on Saturday.
"This was a hard game and I'm happy with the win," said Canada coach Stephane Antiga.
Canada won the first set tightly and ran away with the second, but the momentum switched and the Canadians were forced to go the distance.
"We could have won 3-0 but we didn't," said Antiga. "In the third and fourth set we made too many mistakes and Belgium started playing better. We played some good defence today. It's an important win with the focus on reaching the Final Six."
France is up next for Canada on Saturday, June 17 at 11 a.m. ET, which you can watch live on CBCSports.ca.
The FIVB World League is the premier annual men's volleyball tournament with a total of 36 participating teams in 2017.
The 36 teams have been split into three groups of 12 teams and will play the preliminary round in a pool format over three weeks, before the best teams gather for the finals in each group.
Due to their strong play last season, Canada has been promoted to the top tier in this year's event, known as Group 1.