Tampere, Finland, July 3, 2016 – Canada lost for the first time in this year’s FIVB World League Group 2. Finland beat the group winners 3-2 (25-22, 18-25, 25-20, 21-25, 15-13) in Tampere on Sunday. Sauli Sinkkonen and Jan Helenius of Finland scored 15 points each. The top scorer for Canada was Nicholas Hoeg with 18 points. Before the match Finland had still a chance to qualify for Final Four, but they needed a 3-0 win over Canada.
The opening set was a tough fight. Both sides scored turn by turn and the set was still tied at 21-21. Finland served and attacked well taking the next three points. The final point for Finland came by Rudy Verhoeff’s spike in the net.
Canada came back and got a great start to set two leading soon 4-0 and 9-3. Finland could not recover. Canada cruised to an easy 25-18 victory. Nicholas Hoag’s spike sealed the set.Set three was a strong performance from the Finnish side. The set was tied at 8-8 but after that Finland had control. They served and attacked well. Young opposite player Antti Ropponen came from the bench to score seven points. Finland closed the set at 25-20.Canada mounted another strong comeback in set four. They kept control of the game and Finland was struggling a bit in attack. Canada wrapped up the set at 25-21.Finland had a strong start to the tiebreak taking a 3-0 lead. Canada tied the score at 4-4 and the set was still tied at 13-13. Jan Helenius spiked to make it 14-13 for Finland. A strong kill block by Tommi Siirilä and Eemi Tervaportti closed out the set and the match went to Finland.