CANADA swept all four of its matches in the Philippines by escaping the Netherlands in five sets, 21-25, 25-22, 28-26, 14-25, 15-9, in the 2024 Volleyball Men’s Nations League (VNL) Manila leg on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The Canadian one-two punch of Stephen Maar (18 points) and Eric Loeppky (14 points) kept the unbeaten powerhouse afloat in the face of the Dutchmen’s five-set threat.
“Fourth game in five days, five-setter, crazy environment, we wanted that win so bad and so did they. I don't know if that was Nimir [Abdel-Aziz]’s last game with the (Dutch) national team. They wanted to win for him and we wanted to win for us. It turned out to be a really tough match mentally and also physically,” said Loeppky.
“We needed this game. We really needed to be put in a tough situation (and) to be able to come together and win as a team, I think that's huge for us. Our two previous wins were 3-0 wins, so just kind of in-and-out, but this one was tough."
As it stands, Canada is slotted well inside the VNL top eight at fourth place with a 7-4 record.
Abdel-Aziz's last hurrah for the Netherlands
Hopes of a late Dutch charge to the VNL quarterfinals was further dimmed, as the Netherlands went 0-4 in the Manila leg despite veteran skipper Abdel-Aziz averaging 29.7 points.
Still, in what could be his farewell stint with the national team, Abdel-Aziz etched his name into the VNL record book as the only player in the league’s six-year history to score over 30 points in five or more matches.
Over the span of the preliminaries, Nimir dropped 31 against Slovenia, 37 versus Iran and Canada, and 38 on Cuba and Brazil.
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