Record crowd watches Canada drop tough Volleyball Nations League match to France
QUÉBEC – The fans broke a record, but Canada came up just short in Volleyball National League action on Saturday at Centre Videotron.
More than 12,030 spectators watched Canada fall to France 3-2 in the best-of-five match, including the tense 15-6 tiebreaker. The fan count is the largest audience the Canadian senior men's team has entertained on home soil, and is a VNL North American record.
Brodie Hofer and Xander Wassenaar Ketrzynski led the scoring for Canada with 15 points apiece. France's captain Trevor Clevenot, part of the Paris 2024 gold-medal winning team, led all scorers with 24 points.
'We let the game slip away from us, I think, we played well and maintained a pretty good level, but I don't think this is anywhere near our maximum capabilities,' said Canada captain Fynn McCarthy. 'We played a pretty good solid base level but that's not good enough against France.
'(Trevor) Clevenot kind of ran away with it in the end and he's a really good player, so credit to him, but we should be doing a better job against his service pressure … I'm proud of the guys. Lots of our guys have never played in front of crowd like that so it was amazing.'
France, which won the VNL title last year, led overall in attack points (72-67), blocks (8-4) and made a couple fewer errors. Canada led in aces 5-2.
Canada's head coach Dan Lewis said: 'I'm extremely proud of the guys, they never quit and they are growing with every game. We need a good start in the fifth and make better choices. But it's great that we're learning to execute at a higher level on a regular basis. I'm super proud.'
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 14, 2025.
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