September 15, 2025.- Things cleared up in Pool G of the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in the Philippines and revealed the shocking truth that big pool favorites Japan will have to pack up at the end of the first stage of the competition. Canada and Türkiye will be the two teams from this pool to compete in the eighth finals.
Canada inflicted a second straight-set defeat on Japan in Quezon City on Monday. Earlier in the day, Türkiye also took their second victory by beating Libya.
With 10 kill blocks against two and 40 kills in attack against 33, Canada outplayed Japan on the way to a stunning 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-22) shutout. With this emphatic victory, the North Americans grabbed as many as 16.32 ranking points from Japan and moved a spot up the FIVB World Ranking, to number eight, just below the Asian team, which still kept its seventh position.
Opposite Sharone Vernon-Evans (Sho) led Canada with a match-high 14 points, including the block-out hit that closed the game and got the Canadian party started. He registered a 52% success rate in attack and put away one ace and one kill block towards the victory. Outside hitter and captain Nicholas Hoag also fired one ace, to which he added 12 spike kills at a 60% success rate to sign off with 13 points.
“We are over the moon, for sure. Qualifying to the playoffs is a huge step. That was our goal, and we knew, coming into this match, we had a real opportunity to do that, so I am glad. The fight in the guys – you could just feel it from the start once we got here that we were on it and we just never let up. It’s amazing!” Sho told VBTV. “We will all be ready to go to fight Turkey for first place.”
Japan managed to outserve Canada by 7-3 in aces, with outside hitter Ran Takahashi and opposite Kento Miyaura each authoring two of those. They both reached double digits with a total of 11 and 10 points, respectively. The other three aces were delivered by star outside and captain Yuki Ishikawa.
The last two Pool G games, between Canada and Turkiye (2.00 PM Local Time) for first place in the pool, and between Japan and Libya for first win and third place, are set to be played on Wednesday, September 17.
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