QU脡BEC 鈥� The fans broke a record, but Canada came up just short in Volleyball National League action on Saturday at Centre Videotron.
More than 12,030 spectators watched Canada fall to France 3-2 in the best-of-five match, including the tense 15-6 tiebreaker. The fan count is the largest audience the Canadian senior men's team has entertained on home soil, and is a VNL North American record.
Brodie Hofer and Xander Wassenaar Ketrzynski led the scoring for Canada with 15 points apiece. France鈥檚 captain Trevor Clevenot, part of the Paris 2024 gold-medal winning team, led all scorers with 24 points.
鈥淲e let the game slip away from us, I think, we played well and maintained a pretty good level, but I don鈥檛 think this is anywhere near our maximum capabilities," said Canada captain Fynn McCarthy. "We played a pretty good solid base level but that鈥檚 not good enough against France.
鈥�(Trevor) Clevenot kind of ran away with it in the end and he鈥檚 a really good player, so credit to him, but we should be doing a better job against his service pressure 鈥� I鈥檓 proud of the guys. Lots of our guys have never played in front of crowd like that so it was amazing.鈥�
France, which won the VNL title last year, led overall in attack points (72-67), blocks (8-4) and made a couple fewer errors. Canada led in aces 5-2.
Canada's head coach Dan Lewis said: 鈥淚鈥檓 extremely proud of the guys, they never quit and they are growing with every game. We need a good start in the fifth and make better choices. But it鈥檚 great that we鈥檙e learning to execute at a higher level on a regular basis. I鈥檓 super proud.鈥�
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2025.
The Canadian Press
