By Canadian Press

Record crowd watches Canada drop tough Volleyball Nations League match to France

Jun 14, 2025 | 7:32 PM

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.”

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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.

The Canadian Press