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Canada Wins its First FIVB World League Match of the Season 

 

   

CALGARY, Canada, May 16, 2015 - Canada won its first match of the season in straight sets over Cuba 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 26-24). Gavin Schmitt scored a game-high 17 points, and fittingly earned the final kill of the match to help Canada win the Pool C match of the World League.

 

Schmitt topped Canada with 17 points and next was Toontje Van Lankvelt with nine. Osmany Uriarte and Rolando Cepeda finished with 11 and 9 points, respectively, for the losers.
 
“We stayed pretty aggressive, we stayed patient and started to manage balls a lot better. They didn’t play as well as I think they can, and I think they’ll come out banging a little more tomorrow,” said Schmitt. “I remember a couple of years ago, we’d get together at this point and it would take us weeks to iron things out. To be able to come out and play Cuba like this and get a win after so little training shows how far we’ve been able to come.”
 
In front of a noisy crowd of 6,400 fans at the Corral at Stampede Park, Canada got off to a strong start, racing out to a 6-1 lead in the opening set. Cuba evened things up at 12-12 but Canada again pulled away, with Schmitt picking up four successful attacks and an ace in the 25-20 first-set win. Cuba's Lazaro Fundora was also impressive with four attacks of his own and a block.

 
The visitors responded in the second set and worked their way to a 6-3 advantage. Canada regained composure after the technical timeout, going on a 4-1 run to lead 10-9. Then Cuba suffered a scary moment when Fundora injured his knee and needed to be carried from the floor. Canada wrapped up the second 25-19.
  
Said Canada’s coach Glenn Hoag: “The result was good for us, we did a lot of good things, but we can see we have a lot of work ahead of us too. There is a lot of fine-tuning, it’s going to take time.”