Canadian volleyballers in touch at last-chance Rio qualifying tournament

TOKYO - Having stumbled on its best chance to qualify for the Rio Olympics earlier this year, Canada’s men’s national volleyball team embarks on the longer road to its first Summe Games since 1992 against the toughest team they’re likely to face.

Canada opens the last-chance Olympic volleyball qualifying tournament on Saturday against the world’s No. 2 ranked team from Poland to kick off the eight-team round robin tournament.

“We all know they’re a very strong team,” said outside Gavin Schmitt. “They finished third at the (2015) World Cup—just finished outside of qualifying for the Olympics. They’re a very strong team and I think a lot of the pressure is on them. We just have to come in and do our thing.”

Schmitt is back for Canada after missing January’s qualifying tournament in Edmonton when he had surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right leg. At almost seven feet, Schmitt brings world-class size and power in the attack and from the service line.

In his absence, Canada faltered in losing its final game of that competition to Cuba, which won the tournament and earned the only berth in Rio from that tournament. That forced Canada into this competition where three spots are available to Canada and a fourth to the highest-ranked Asian team in the final standings.

“It was heartbreaking. We thought we had it,” said Gord Perrin, another one of the powerful Canadian attackers. “We made the mistake of thinking we had qualified already and it was a big mistake by us and we didn’t show up for the game. It was one of our worst performances I’ve ever been a part of.”

Poland, which won its only Olympic gold medal at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, is one of the elite teams in the world. It won the FIVB World Championships in 2014 and is the top-ranked team in the competition.

It marks a tough start to the competition for Canada as it faces the No. 6 Iranian team in the second game of the competition in the tough tournament that will feature seven matches in nine days.

“They’re a very complete team,” said Canadian head coach Glenn Hoag of Poland. “They’re very solid, a good blocking team. They’re not a great serving team. They’re mostly a tactical serving team with a lot of jump float serves. But they’re a really well structured team and play great defence.”

It may be indoors but it was still hot and muggy inside the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium as Canada had their lone practice before the tournament on Friday afternoon. Fitness will be important with heat combining with so many games in a short amount of time.

It’s not really anything unexpected for the No. 10 ranked Canada as it has played these sorts of crammed schedules before, and it’s hoping it can make good on its second opportunity to qualify.

“It’s seven games in nine days—just try to stay healthy,” said Schmitt. “It’s just building. Trying to play consistently and trying to do well in all our games. There’s nothing to save it for us so we might as well go hard here and try to get as many wins as we can and play as well as we can in all our matches.”