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Olympic Volleyball Day 9: Polished Poland men wax Canada, Brazil survives long battle with France

Olympic Volleyball Day 9: Polished Poland men wax Canada, Brazil survives long battle with France
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Editor's note: This article will be updated throughout the day's action.

Poland emerges as class of Pool A

MATCH STATS

Canada's men's volleyball team has proven itself a determined, hard-working, never-say-die squad in pool play at the Tokyo Olympics, but as the matches churned on, pluck proved lacking against the sport's true powers.

Poland pounded that point home throughout its systematic sweep Sunday at Ariake Arena, using a 25-15, 25-21, 25-16 thrashing of Canada to further legitimize its status as a frontrunner for gold.

The victory moved Poland ahead of Rio 2016 silver medalist Italy (3-1) atop Pool A, while Canada fell to 2-3.

Brazil works OT to survive marathon match

MATCH STATS

Brazil, which won gold on its home soil at Rio 2016, stayed atop the Pool B standings by outlasting France in a five-set thriller to improve to 4-1.

France dropped a fairly close first set, 25-22, but the second set was a doozy. Back and forth, and back again, until France had evened things up with a 39-37 set victory that saw the voices of young boys in the crowd deepen as the action  wore on.

Perhaps gassed, France lost the third set 25-17, but the pep in their step came back as they won the fourth set and made Brazil sweat out more extra work before wrapping it up 20-18 and drop France to 2-3 in pool play.