Canadian women beat South Korea 3-0 in Volleyball Nations League to keep Olympic hopes alive
Fighting for 1 of 5 remaining spots for Paris
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 in Arlington, Texas.
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) to improve its season record to 5-3.
"There are no easy games in VNL," Canada head coach Shannon Winzer told Volleyball Canada. "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."
Sunday's performance was a marked difference from Friday's four-set loss to reigning world champion Serbia.
"It felt like we played with a ton of pressure against Serbia, and we made mistakes that are uncharacteristic of us," Winzer said. "We need to find a way to continue to play free and enjoy the moment, regardless of what is on the line.
"The pressure is only going to increase and that game gave us good information about ourselves and we can now come up with a plan to handle it better for next time."
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 VNL preliminary phase.
The next round is in Fukuoka, Japan, where Canada plays Italy on June 11, and then Japan, Netherlands and France.
Canadian roster
- Brie O'Reilly — Langley, B.C.
- Courtney Baker — Bridgewater, N.S.
- Emily Maglio — Coquitlam, B.C.
- Jazmine White — Oshawa, Ont.
- Alicia Ogoms — Winnipeg
- Layne Van Buskirk — Windsor, Ont.
- Alexa Gray (C) — Calgary
- Hilary Johnson — Calgary
- Andrea Mitrovic — Mississauga, Ont.
- Vicky Savard — Jonquière, Que.
- Kiera Van Ryk — Surrey, B.C.
- Shainah Joseph — Ottawa
- Julia Murmann — Toronto
- Kacey Jost — St. Albert, Alta.
WATCH | Will Canada's women's volleyball return to Olympics for the 1st time since 1996?:
With files from CBC Sports
