Canadian men's volleyball team can't hold lead against Russia
Drop to 0-2 at World Cup, play Iran on Thursday
The Canadian men's volleyball team squandered a two-set lead en route to a 3-2 loss (23-25, 16-25, 25-17, 25-23, 15-10) to Russia on Wednesday at the World Cup.
Edmonton's Ryley Barnes led sixth-ranked Canada with 14 kills, while Steven Marshall of Abbotsford, B.C., had 11.
Fedor Voronkov had a match-high 17 kills for No. 5 Russia.
"Today was a good game, I think better than yesterday (when Canada lost 3-0 to top-ranked Brazil)," Canada captain Nicholas Hoag said.
"We played even better than yesterday on block defence and we were also quite efficient hitting after that defence and those blocks.
"We also made less mistakes, especially on the service line. We put them in trouble with our float serves and it was unfortunate we couldn't convert the fourth set and win 3-1, but it was a good game overall and we're going to strive on that hopefully and keep going on this road."
Canada, which finished seventh at the last World Cup in 2015, faces No. 8 Iran on Thursday.
The 12 participating teams compete in a single round-robin competition over 11 match days.