Canada's women's team defeated by U.S. in Volleyball Nations League preliminary round

In their third game of the preliminary round in the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL), the Canadian women's national indoor team was beat 3-0 (25-14, 25-22, 25-19) by the United States in Shreveport, Louisiana on Friday.

The U.S., who captured its first-ever gold at Tokyo 2020, were led by Andrea Drews with 15 total points.

Calgary's Alexa Gray had 10 points overall to lead Canada.

The Americans are currently No. 1 in the FIVB World Rankings and are the three-time VNL defending champions — capturing every title in the competition's brief history.

WATCH | Canada drops 2nd match at FIVB Volleyball Nations League: 

Canada, ranked 19th in the world, opened its VNL campaign with a 3-1 defeat to Poland before securing a 3-0 win over the Dominican Republic, and will return to action on Sunday to face Korea at 9 p.m. ET.

Following Sunday's matchup, the Canadians will resume their preliminary round games on June 14 at 3 a.m. ET against Thailand. All games will be available to stream via CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem.

The new competition format for the 2022 VNL will see 16 women's teams compete in pools of eight over three weeks of the pool phase.

Each team competes in four matches over six days of competition per week. Eight teams will then move into the final knockout phase of the competition.