Comeback win has Canada nearing Olympics in men's volleyball

Blair Bann and Graham Vigrass of Canada celebrate after defeating Cuba 3-2 during the men's volleyball 2020 Olympic qualification tournament at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, on Saturday, January 11, 2020. VANCOUVER -- Their Olympic dream was in danger of vanishing, but the Canadian men's volleyball team refused to quit.

The Canadian men, ranked seventh in the world, dropped the first two sets by identical 25-22 scores to the 18th-ranked Cubans. They pulled themselves from the brink with wins of 25-12, 25-21 and 15-9 before a large, vocal crowd during the NORCECA men's Tokyo qualification tournament played at Pacific Coliseum."It's almost unbelievable," said Toronto's Arthur Szwarc. "We were a little on our heels and didn't know what to expect.

Canada trailed by as much as five points in the opening set but battled back to tie the score three times. Cuba looked in control after taking a 23-20 lead, but the Canadians climbed to within one before losing. Canada held a 17-10 lead in the fourth set. The Cubans stayed calm and got to within two before losing, setting up a deciding fifth set.

Canada opened the tournament Friday night beating No. 21 Mexico in straight sets 25-16, 25-14, 15-1. On the same night, Cuba defeated 24th ranked Puerto Rico 25-18, 25-14, 25-19.In Sunday's other game Cuba plays Mexico."We expect a tough match," he said. "We need to really focus on our game." The round-robin tournament consists of best-of-five matches. The team with the best record wins. If there is a first-place tie, it's broken by match points.

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