Canada’s men’s volleyball team missing some key players at world tournament

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This article was published 15/11/2006 (7224 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

(CP) – Canada’s men’s volleyball team had to leave a couple of key players home from the FIVB world championships.

But head coach Glenn Hoag hopes his rejigged roster can overcome the losses and still reach its goal of a strong performance in Japan.

“We’ve had setbacks, just before we left to come here,” Hoag said in a phone interview from Japan. “But now everybody seems to have found their spot, and now we’re basically focused on what we have to do to win our games.”

Canada, which opens the world tournament Friday against Kazakhstan in Sendai, Japan, is missing left side Terry Martin of Burlington, Ont., who’s out with an abdominal injury, and Chris Wolfenden of Peterborough, Ont., the team’s Libero who will be out for up to three months after having surgery on his knee.

“Those were two crucial guys from our system,” said Hoag. “We’ll see how that affects us, and I’m hoping it won’t too much.”

Setter Mike Munday of Winnipeg made the trip despite having a broken finger.

Hoag moved Christian Bernier of Montreal from the left side to fill in at Libero, and added rookie left side Louis-Pierre Mainville from Notre-dame-de-L’isle-Perrot, Que., to the roster.

“The team had been performing fairly well, so hopefully we can keep that momentum,” said Hoag. “Obviously injuries might be tough because our system was pretty specific, and now we’re going to put some people in different positions. But I think we can still reach our goal of moving on to the next round and finishing top-10.”

Twelfth-ranked Canada is in Pool D in the 24-country world tournament with Russia (third), Serbia and Montenegro (fourth), South Korea (11th), Tunisia (17th), and Kazakhstan (33rd).

“The stiffest competition will be Serbia and Russia, and then there will be a battle between the rest. . . the first four of each pool carry on to the second round, and that’s our primary objective for the first round of the tournament,” said Hoag.

Brazil is the defending champion at the world tournament, which is held every four years. Canada finished 17th in 2002 while its best finish was ninth in’94.

Canada’s women’s team failed to qualify for the world championships, which ends Thursday in Japan.

With the 2008 Beijing Olympics less than two years away, Hoag said the world tournament is a good gauge of where his team is at. Canada’s men haven’t qualified for the Olympics since the’92 Barcelona Games where the team was ninth, and Hoag is keen to get his team to Beijing.

“The world championships in the four-year cycle between two Olympics, it’s right in the middle, so it’s a really good test to see where the team is at and what we need to work on after that,” said Hoag.

Canada faces a big, physical team in its opener against Kazakhstan.

“We expect a not very complex offence, but fairly physical, and the same with the defence – very much strong net play,” said Hoag.

Following Kazakhstan, Canada plays South Korea on Saturday and Russia on Sunday. The Canadians cap the preliminary round with games against Tunisia next Tuesday and Serbia and Montenegro on Wednesday.

The championship match and bronze-medal game are Dec. 3 in Tokyo.