By Toby White
The Canadian Men’s Volleyball team gained a 2-1 set led over the Americans on Fri., Aug. 22, but the team couldn’t clinch the victory. The Canucks dropped the match 3-2 to Team USA, the 2001 champions, at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Daegu, South Korea.
Going in, the Canadians knew they had a tough match ahead of them. The Americans have trained together the entire summer, while the Canadians had a mere 3 days to train and mesh as a team before the games began.
The teams were neck in neck during the first set until captain Mike Munday of the University of Manitoba spoiled an attempted kill by the Americans. The block netted the Candians a 25-24 lead, allowing them to capitalize to a 27-25 win.
Canada took the lead in the second set but let their defenses down, allowing the Americans to take it 25-22. Dalhousie’s Josh Muise was on fire in the third set, leading the Canadians to a 25-21 victory.
Canada held a four point lead once again in the fourth set, but disappointingly fell behind. The Yanks took the set 25-18, sending the tied match to a fifth set. Canada fell behind but closed the gap to 13-13 in the fifth. The Americans fought back and took the match at 15-13.
Head Coach Greg Ryan from the University of Calgary felt the team didn’t live up to their potential, but was optimistic about their future matches.
“We did not play as well as we did on Thursday versus the Netherlands,” stated Ryan. “If we execute all the way through, we win.”