Canada's women's volleyball team drops world championships opener to Serbia

Canada dropped the 2022 FIVB women's volleyball world championships opener on Sunday, losing in straight sets to reigning champions Serbia (25-23, 25-16, 25-20) in Arnhem, Netherlands.

Alexa Gray of Calgary led the Canadians with 14 points, followed by Kiera Van Ryk of Surrey, B.C., who had 13. Serbian captain Tijana Boskovic went off and tallied 23.

The Canadian team will get back on court on Monday at 3 p.m. ET to face the U.S. in the same venue.

Canada will also play Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Germany in pool C action. All three games will be held in Lodz, Poland.

The teams are divided into four pools of six teams each for the preliminary stage. The top four teams in each pool advance to the second stage, where they are divided again into two groups.

The 16 remaining teams will play four matches against opponents they didn't face during the preliminary stage, with the top four squads from both groups moving on to the quarter-finals.