Canada's women's volleyball team drops world championships opener to Serbia

Canada dropped its 2022 FIVB women's volleyball world championships opener on Sunday, losing in straight sets to reigning champions Serbia (25-23, 25-16, 25-20) in Arnhem, Netherlands.

Alexa Gray of Calgary led the Canadians with 14 points, followed by Kiera Van Ryk of Surrey, B.C., who had 13. Serbian captain Tijana Boskovic went off and tallied 23.

Canada returns to the court on Monday at 3 p.m. ET against the United States.

The team's other three Pool C matches against Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Germany will be held in Lodz, Poland.

Serbia won the last edition of the tournament in 2018.

The teams are divided into four pools of six teams each for the preliminary stage. The top four in each pool advance to the second stage, where they are divided again into two groups.

The 16 remaining clubs will play four matches against opponents they didn't face during the preliminary stage, with the top from each group moving on to the quarter-finals.