NINGBO, China – Canada’s hopes of qualifying for a girls’s volleyball berth within the 2024 Paris Olympics took a giant hit as powerhouse Serbia flexed its muscle in an Olympic qualification match on Monday night time.
Serbia defeated Canada 25-19, 25-17, 25-21.
“Serbia is quantity three on this planet for a motive and are an extremely bodily crew, however I don’t suppose we had our greatest efficiency right now,” stated Canadian head coach Shannon Winzer.
“Our blocking and defence had been disjointed and I believe, at occasions, we performed inside ourselves as an alternative of the aggressive aggressive crew that you just’ve gotten used to seeing,” stated Winzer.
Serbia dominated in its assault (45-32) and serving factors (8-1) and had the sting over Canada in blocking factors (9-7). Serbia misplaced 4 extra factors to errors than Canada.
Tijana Boskovic of Serbia led the scoring with 25 factors, together with 4 aces. Serbia held off Canada’s usually efficient attackers, with Alexa Grey, Kiera Van Ryk and Hilary Howe every solely scoring 9 factors on Monday.
Serbia is 3-0 in Pool A of the match, whereas Canada is 1-2. Canada performs China on Wednesday. The highest two groups in every pool qualify for the Paris Video games.
“We face China, one other prime crew, and we have now to return to discovering confidence in our fashion of play and the issues that we all know we will do nicely,” stated Winzer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Sept. 18, 2023.
