XI'AN, China - Canada emerged victorious in its opening match of a men's volleyball Olympic qualification tournament early on Saturday.
Canada took the final two sets to earn the comeback win over the Netherlands 3-2 (25-21, 23-25, 24-26, 25-18, 15-12).
Canada then bumped off Argentina 3-1 (27-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-15) on Saturday night (Sunday morning local time) to remain unbeaten.
"It was a good victory (over Netherlands), which is very important for the team and for confidence,鈥 said Canada head coach Tuomas Sammelvuo.
The Dutch led in attack points (69-57), but also gave up more points to errors (34-25). Canada led in blocking (13-5) and service aces (8-3).
Canada was led by Toronto's Arthur Szwarc's 19 points, followed by Stephen Maar (18) of Aurora, Ont., and Eric Loeppky (15) of Steinbach, Man.
Nimir Abdel-Aziz paced the Netherlands with 29 points.
The top two seeds from each of the three eight-team pools qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Canada is in Pool C alongside Bulgaria, Argentina, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Mexico and China, host of the current tournament which runs until Oct. 8.
This report by 好色tvwas first published Sept. 30, 2023.