Langley’s Daniel Vandoorn scored nine points as Team Canada beat Australia Sunday (Oct. 6) for for their second win at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup.
Canada recovered from one set down to defeat Australia 3-1 (18-25, 28-26, 25-20, 25-22) at Nagano’s White Ring arena.
Canadian coach Dan Lewis felt the team got off to a slow start.
“Australia was playing at a very high physical level in the first set. I think it just took some time for us to get into our rhythm,” Lewis commented.
“In the second and third set, we were making too many net mistakes, otherwise I think we would have won by quite a bit more.”
Canada’s Stephen Maar led all scorers in today’s match with 24 points.
Canada (2-3) now heads to Hiroshima for the next phase of the tournament, playing Tunisia on Wednesday.
Vandoorn played for the Langley-based Trinity Western University Spartans from 2009 to 2013, helping the team win back-to-back CIS Volleyball Championships.
After graduating in 2013, he signed with French team Tourcoing Lille Metropole.
After two years with the team, he joined Greek side Pamvohaikos, before moving back to France to play for Tours VB.
In 2017, he helped the team win the CEV Cup against Trentino.
Other Spartans alumni on Team Canada include Steven Marshall from Abbotsford, Lucas Van Berkel from Edmonton, and Blake Scheerhoorn from Belleville.
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The 2019 Men’s World Cup is held in Fukuoka (Marinmesse) and Nagano (White Ring), and teams move to Hiroshima for the remaining six matches at the city’s Green Arena.
The 12 participating teams compete in a single round-robin competition over 11 match days. Three games will be played at each venue each match day.
At the last World Cup in 2015 , Canada finished seventh overall.
