The Canadian women’s sitting volleyball team gears up to take on Japan in their final match of the preliminaries on Sept. 1. at 8:30 p.m. JST, 7:30 a.m. EST.
Canada currently sits 1-1 in the tournament, but a win against Japan is crucial if the team still wants to contend for a spot in the semifinals.
In their opening game, Canada fell to Brazil 3-2, but they bounced back with a win against Italy (3-1) in the second match of the group stage.
Against both Brazil and Italy, Paralympic veteran Heidi Peters racked up the points for Canada and she’ll be the top-scorer to look for against Japan.
“I am so proud of this team,” said the Neerlandia, Alta., native after their match against Italy. “We are focused on our next match against Japan and looking to secure a spot in the semifinals.”
Other players to keep an eye out for are Canada’s Danielle Ellis, who is ranked as Canada’s No. 2 scorer and the team’s best digger, as well as Jennifer Oakes, one of the top four setters in the tournament.
Japan currently sits in last place in Pool A, but that happens to be just one spot behind the third place Canadians.
“We were aggressive in all aspects of the match and because of that, we got the outcome we wanted,” said head coach Nicole Ban after her team’s last match. “I’m proud of the resiliency this group showed and ready to carry the momentum forward.”
Canada’s squad knows what it feels like to medal, as 11 returning players captured bronze at the Lima 2019 Parapan Am Games, Canada’s second Parapan Am bronze in a row in this event.
Among the team are eight players that also competed at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, where the Canadian women’s team first debuted.
Team Canada finished seventh overall in Rio, but didn’t win a single game at the Paralympics, other than their seventh-place classification match against Rwanda.
Going into Tokyo they are ranked fifth in the world and are already on track to score a spot higher than seventh place with after regulation win against Italy.
In Japan’s last game, they fell to Brazil, the top team in the pool, 0-3, a momentum that the Canadians must continue to stay alive in the tournament.