Canadian women advance to quarterfinals at sitting volleyball world championships

SARAJEVO – Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team showed no mercy for Hungary in Tuesday’s playoff round match with a decisive 25-8, 25-22, 25-12 victory to advance to the quarterfinals at the world championships.

Canada faces Italy Wednesday (9:30 a.m. ET) for a chance to play in the semifinals for the first time in its history at the worlds. It was the third win in four matches so far at the tournament for Canada.

The Italians are ranked fifth in the world, one spot ahead of Canada. The two countries were in the same pool last summer at the Paralympic Games. Canada won their preliminary round match in four sets and wound up a best-ever fourth in Tokyo. The Italians were sixth.

“We’re happy with the 3-0 win today,” said Canada’s women’s head coach Nicole Ban. “After this strong match against Hungary, we are looking forward to the quarterfinal with Italy. They will be a tough opponent, but we are confident in our preparations.”

 With a victory, Canada would be assured to post its best ever result at the worlds. They were seventh in 2018 while Italy was a best-ever fourth.

The other quarterfinal matchups for Wednesday are world number-one USA against Germany, Brazil opposite Ukraine, and Rwanda versus Slovenia. The Canada-Italy winner will face the Rwanda-Slovenia victor in the semis.

On the men’s side, Canada came back from a set down to defeat Rwanda and advance to the 9-12 bracket following a 20-25, 29-27, 25-12, 25-22 victory.

Rwanda missed an opportunity to go two sets up when they dropped a set point at 24-23 in the second. Canada didn’t back down, even when challenged late in the fourth set.

“After starting slow in the first, our team executed our game plan very well especially later into the sets,” said Tristan Simmonds, assistant coach of the Canadian men’s team. “It was an exciting match all around and we are extremely happy with how our team presented themselves on the big stage.”

Canada will play Iraq next on Wednesday.

All matches are streamed live on World ParaVolley’s YouTube channel.

With files from Volleyball Canada