June 13, 2026: Canada’s men’s team lost a thrilling, rollercoaster of a match to its North American rival today in Volleyball Nations League action at the Arena at TD Place in Ottawa.

The final score was 2-3 (25-20, 35-33, 24-26, 21-25, 11-15) in favour of USA in front of a full house in the Nation’s Capital.

"We started off strong, and they came back with some solutions, and in the end the game went their way, and we just weren’t able to respond," said Canada’s Xander Ketrzynski, who scored a team-high 21 points (18 kills, 2 blocks, 1 ace). "We can’t overthink it, and it’s a new day tomorrow. We must prepare for that."
Match stats.

Opposite Cole Hartke of USA recorded a match-high 33 points (24 kills), 6 blocks, 3 aces.

Canada, now with a 1-2 record VNL record, plays Türkiye on Sunday at 2:30 pm ET to wrap up this home stretch of VNL.

This is the first week of men’s VNL. In the preliminary phase, each participating team plays 12 matches spread across three competition weeks. There are three pools per week played at three different venues with six teams each.

Canada has hosted VNL in Ottawa at TD Place since 2018, with the men last playing in the capital in 2024.

Tickets: https://www.tdplace.ca/event/volleyball-nations-league/

Team Canada Players
Landon Currie – Coldstream, BC
Danny Demyanenko – Toronto, ON
Max Elgert – Athabasca, AB
Pearson Eshenko – Banff, AB
Mason Greves – Calgary, AB
Daenan Kofi Gyimah – Scarborough, ON
Luke Herr – Winnipeg, MB
Brodie Hofer – Langley, BC
Zachary Hollands – Victoriaville, QC
Jackson Howe – Calgary, AB
Xander Ketrzynski – Toronto, ON
Eric Loeppky – Steinbach, MB
Stephen Maar – Aurora, ON
Erik Siksna – Markham, ON
Arthur Szwarc – Toronto, ON
Skyler Varga – Muenster, SK
Sharone Vernon-Evans – Scarborough, ON
Jackson Young – Toronto, ON

Staff
Dan Lewis – Head Coach
Juan Manuel Mendez – Assistant Coach
Chris Voth – Assistant Coach
Damian Musiak – Performance Analyst
Meredith Waisman – Sport Physiotherapist
Nicholas Poelman – Chiropractor
Kyle Paquette – Mental Performance Coach
Donna McDonagh – Mental Health Lead
Emilie Rousseau Comtois – Sport Dietician
Cassandra Nicol – Team Manager
Julien Boucher – High Performance Director

Tournament website: https://en.volleyballworld.com/volleyball/competitions/volleyball-nations-league

Volleyball Canada Media Contact:
Jackie Skender
jskender@volleyball.ca
Mobile: 613-794-7676