Brandon’s Dustin Schneider, Rivers’ Toon Van Lankvelt and Team Canada are ready for the second stage of the World Men’s Volleyball Championship in Poland.
The Canadians won four of their five matches in the opening round, including four in a row after opening with a straight sets loss to Russia in their opening match.
"Sometimes after you lose the first match like that, it’s tough to stay focused and rebound like we did but it was really impressive to see and the guys, the whole week, were really on point and focused," said Van Lankvelt, "Our focus and our level of play has been really solid and consistent throughout the whole five games of the first round."
The second stage will be a little tougher for Canada.
They begin with a match against Cuba on Wednesday, followed by matches against Finland, top-ranked Brazil and Germany.
"We have Cuba and Finland, which we know quite well. We’ve played both teams a lot over the last few years in World League and in NORCECA tournaments and then it’ll be Brazil and Germany," said Van Lankvelt, "Especially those two teams, they’re two of the top teams in the world and to be able to beat a team like that our level has to be the best it has been all summer."
Canada finished 19th at the last World Championship in 2010.
Van Lankvelt, Canada Set for Stage 2
Sep 10, 2014 | 7:16 AM
