Canada falls to Serbia in men’s Volleyball Nations League

LJUBLJANA — The Canadian men’s volleyball team fell 3-1 to a Serbian team desperate to avoid relegation in Volleyball Nations League on Saturday.

Serbia’s (15-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-22) victory over the Canadians assured the Serbians a berth in next year’s Nations League with a ranking of 15th out of 18 participating countries.

Canada, ranked 14th with a record of 4-7, will also return to Nations League in 2026. The Canadians wrap the VNL preliminary round Sunday against Ukraine.

Canada dominated the Serbians in the first set, but the latter adjusted to pull out the victory.

Serbia led in attack points (53-50), aces (4-3) and made fewer errors (26-29). Canada had the more effective block (8-4).

“We have to execute at a higher level if we want to be able to compete internationally,” observed Canadian head coach Dan Lewis.

“The statistics in general were not that bad, plus minus was good overall, but we didn’t have enough serving pressure on them and our attack dropped to a level that’s not sufficient enough to compete at a high level.

“We’re not digging enough balls and we’re not presenting ourselves with enough block positive and slow down transition opportunities and this has been a theme for some of our matches. We need to improve on this if we’re going to win.”

Brodie Hofer of Langley, B.C., (15 points), Isaac Heslinga of Orangeville, Ont., (14 points), and Toronto’s Xander Wassenaar Ketrzynski (11) led scoring for Canada.

Serbia’s Drazen Luburić led all scorers with 20 points (18 kills and 2 aces)

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2025.