ATHABASCA — Fans of volleyball and locally grown athletic talent are in luck this summer; Athabasca-grown Max Elgert is representing Team Canada as the country’s starting setter in the Volleyball Nations League 2025 (VNL).
The 26-year-old Elgert can be caught hitting the court in Ljubljana, Slovenia, with the rest of his teammates in the third week of July for week three of VNL play.
Team Canada is set to take on the Slovenian team on their home soil July 16 and will face off against the Netherlands on July 18. Elgert et al. are slated to go head-to-head with teams from Serbia on July 19 and Ukraine on July 20.
Canada sits at 14 in the rankings heading into week three after hard-fought matches on North American soil in June. For their first match, the Canadians took on Germany in Quebec and came out on top 3-2, but lost to Argentina the next day in a match with the same score.
On June 14, the French team managed a victory over Canada, but one day later the team recorded another win on home soil against Bulgaria, sweeping the match 3-0.
Brazil, sitting at the top of the league standings, got the best of Team Canada on June 25, winning 3 straight sets to take the match 3-0 in Chicago. Team USA topped Canada again the next day, and despite a hard-fought performance against top contender, Poland, Canada took their third loss in a row during week two of league play.
After their defeat by Poland, the Canadians went on to sweep their June 29 match against China 3-0.
Although the young Canadians didn’t manage to keep their two-set lead in the match against Poland, currently sitting at second in the round robin rankings, head coach Dan Lewis said the men’s performance was an important one.
“I am incredibly proud of the focus, dedication and detail to assignment in terms of what the team needed to be able to compete tonight,” Canada’s head coach Dan Lewis told The Sport Information Resource Centre (SIRC).
“I know in my soul that this team needs to continue to give itself opportunities to compete at the highest level and within a short amount of time, we will have impressive showings,” said Lewis. “This week has been from a very difficult start to an incredible moment tonight for this group tonight.”
Elgert himself had his best performance of 2025 league play against Poland, scoring four points during the match — one block and three serving points. Out of 109 total sets throughout the match, Elgert was successful on 31, his highest number of successful sets during any match of the tournament thus far.
During the match against Team France, Elgert landed 30 successful sets out of a total 61 attempted, earning a success rate of 49.18 per cent for the match.
In total, Elgert has six points, with five earned through serves. Elgert joined Team Canada after a successful run with the University of Alberta’s Golden Bears, known for recording the second-highest number of assists in the team’s history.
Elgert received the Mikasa 18U Male Athlete of the Year Award in 2016 for his dedication to Volleyball Alberta in his youth, which involved earning provincial championships, national championships, and a Volleyball Canada National Championship award for most valuable player.
In 2016, Elgert’s dad, Greg Elgert, was also awarded the Mikasa Performance Coach of the Year award for his dedicated efforts in coaching his son’s U18 team.
Quarter-final matches for the Men’s league begin on July 30 in China, and the home team is the only to have qualified as of yet. Semi-final matches are slated to take place on Aug. 2, and the finals will be played Sunday, Aug. 3.
For more information on the schedule, rankings, Elgert's performance statistics, and where to watch upcoming games, visit volleyballworld.com.
