MONCTON, Canada, September 18, 2026. –Canada is one win away from a ticket to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games after beating Mexico in NORCECA qualification semifinal action Friday.
Canada won 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-13) in front of a friendly crowd at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, Canada, to advance to Saturday’s final against the winner of Cuba vs. Dominican Republic.
The home side got off to a slow start, falling behind 14-9 in the first set. But the Canadians dug their way out of that hole and equalized 16-16 on Sharone (Sho) Vernon-Evans’s kill, then scored nine of the next 14 points for the win. Canada was in the driver’s seat from there, taking the second set comfortably and the third convincingly.
Canada dominated in attacks (42-31), blocks (8-0) and aces (8-2) en route to victory. The Canadians boasted the top four scorers. Eric Loeppky, named best spiker at this week’s NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship, led the way with 17 points, followed by Sho with 13. Jackson Howe (three aces) and Stephen Maar chipped in 10 points each for the winners. Fynn McCarthy added seven points, following up his best server award with a match-high four aces.
Mexico’s Diego González – the top scorer in the continental championship – and Fuentes shared the scoring lead for Mexico with eight points each. Jesus Izaguirre had nine digs.
Dan Lewis, Canada coach: “This was the last step before our final goal, that we want to be in the final. You knew that Mexico after a day of rest, their nervous systems would be a bit fresher and they were going to have a better serving game and take more risks. It was really important for us to understand that there would be that initial storm of aggressive serving and if they got hot like they did, you have to be able to weather it. Keep your cool, return some pressure on serve like we did, and then continue to identify the opportunities to take points. That’s exactly what our team did so I was really happy for them. After that we switched and had more service pressure on them. We started to dig balls and that really put them at a big disadvantage. I’m super happy for the guys. They’ve executed everything they’ve needed to do up until this point. Now they need to rest and prepare for the final.”
Xander Ketrzynski, Canada: “Mexico fought hard, but our guys showed up to play, they battled, they executed and we played the way we’re supposed to, the way we practised all summer. Our hard work showed today.”
On the team’s mindset for the final: “Just keep playing like ourselves. It’s just another volleyball game. Sometimes at these big moments you can get a little bit ahead of yourself but at the end of the day, you got here for a reason, you’ve got to keep performing that way.”