QU脡BEC 鈥� Canada's senior men's volleyball team bounced back from Saturday's tough five-set loss to France to beat Bulgaria 3-0 in their best-of-five Volleyball Nations League match on Sunday.
Canada bounced Bulgaria 26-24, 25-23 and 25-19 to record their second match victory in Pool 1 play. Canada is in sixth place in the 18-team standings with seven points, tied with Ukraine. Bulgaria is 10th with five points.
Outside hitter Brodie Hofer led all Canadian scorers with 21 points. Canadian Daenan Gyimah led all defenders with 11 blocks, while Ryan Joseph Sclater and Hofer had nine each.
"We kept our errors low and they made a lot of mistakes,鈥� Canadian head coach Dan Lewis said after the match. 鈥淓specially in the second in that really crucial moment. I think we had one or two errors; they had like nine.
" 鈥� Near the end of the tournament week, everyone's fatigued, you've got to make them play. My only message to the guys today was, other than a few game plan things, if Bulgaria makes a point, they need to earn that point."
Hofer had an impressive 17 points coming off the attack and sported a strong 34.15 efficiency percentage. The Langley, B.C., native sits fourth in the tournament in points (69) and tied for second in attack points (62).
"We're a good team and we can play with any team in the world,鈥� Hofer said. 鈥淲e have lots of things to improve on, but our level is there. We just have to keep getting better every day.鈥�
Canada will have 10 days off before the team heads to Chicago for Week 2 of VNL 2025. The Canadians will kick off the second leg of the tournament against Brazil on June 25 before facing the host Americans, top-ranked Poland and China later in the week.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 15, 2025.
The Canadian Press
