Canadian women lose tough Volleyball Nations League match to unbeaten Japan

By Canadian Press on June 7, 2025.

OTTAWA — Canada will be aiming to level their record at 2-2 when it plays Serbia on Sunday to cap off the first week of women’s Volleyball Nations League action.

Canada slipped to 1-2 with a 3-0 loss to Japan in a best-of-five match played Saturday in front of more than 5,100 spectators at the Arena at TD Place.

Canada dropped the match to Japan 24-26, 20-25, 19-25. The unbeaten Japan squad led in attack points (39-33), serving (7-3) and made fewer errors 19-30).

“Japan is really tough to play against, and we were right there with them,” said Canadian setter Brie O’Reilly of Langley, B.C. “We’re just missing those after-20 (points) plays and finishing sets.

“We need to stay aggressive and take confidence that there was a lot of our game that was really great.”

O’Reilly said the Canadians need to server more aggressively against Serbia and “just keep our block defence systems working a bit more cohesively.”

Kiera Van Ryk of Surrey, B.C., led the scoring for Canada with 13 points and also set a personal best with a serve clocked at 113 kilometres per hour.

Yukiko Wada of Japan led her team with 20 points.

Canada opened the VNL schedule with a win over Bulgaria and then lost a Thursday match to Netherlands.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 7, 2025.

The Canadian Press