Canadian women beat South Korea 3-0 in Volleyball Nations League to keep Olympic hopes alive

Forwards Kiera Van Ryk of Surrey, B.C., and Alexa Gray of Calgary each scored 13 points as Canada beat South Korea 3-0 on Sunday in the Women's Volleyball Nations League .

The Canadians comfortably won each set by scores of 25-15, 25-12 and 25-18 in Arlington, Texas.

Middle blocker Emily Maglio of Coquitlam, B.C., scored nine points and setter Brie O'Reilly of Langley, B.C., had five aces and seven points total.

Canada dominated in kills (44-21), blocks (8-5) and aces (9-4) to improve its season record to 5-3.

“There are no easy matches in the VNL,” Canada head coach Shannon Winzer told Volleyball Canada. “Against Korea, we wanted to put a lot of pressure on them to serve, work to be clean in the block and vary our attackers in angles and shots.

“The most important thing is we wanted to remember to enjoy the game. “I think we did a really good job and we can get the confidence back going into an important third round.”

Sunday's performance marked a marked difference from Friday's four-point loss to reigning world champions Serbia.

“I felt like we played with a lot of pressure against Serbia and made some mistakes that are not typical of us,” Winzer said. “We have to find a way to continue to play freely and enjoy the moment, whatever the stakes.

“The pressure will only increase and this match gave us some good information about ourselves and now we can make a plan to handle this better next time.”

Canadian women are still competing for a spot at this summer's Olympic Games in Paris.

Seven women's teams have already qualified. The remaining five places will go to the five best teams not yet qualified in the FIVB rankings at the end of the preliminary phase of the VNL.

The next round will take place in Fukuoka, Japan, where Canada will face Italy on June 11, then Japan, the Netherlands and France.

Canadian list

  • Brie O'Reilly… Langley, British Columbia
  • Courtney Baker… Bridgewater, New Jersey, United States
  • Émilie Maglio… Coquitlam, British Columbia
  • White jasmine – Oshawa, Ontario.
  • Alicia Ogoms— Winnipeg
  • Layne Van Buskirk— Windsor, Ontario.
  • Alexa Gray (C) — calgary
  • Hilary Johnson… calgary
  • Andrea Mitrovic— Mississauga, Ontario.
  • Vicky Savard… Jonquière, Que.
  • Kiera Van Ryk— Surrey, British Columbia
  • Shainah Jose— Ottawa
  • Julia Murmann… Toronto
  • Kacey Jost— San Alberto, Alta.

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Eugenia Tenny

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