Canada shakes off sluggish start to top Ukraine at Olympic volleyball qualifier

Alexa Gray had 20 attack points to lead Canada to a 3-1 win over Ukraine on Friday at the women's volleyball Olympic qualification tournament in Ningbo, China.

Gray added one block point and three aces in the 25-22, 23-25, 25-12, 25-11 victory as Canada improved to 3-2.

"It was very slow start for us today," said Canada head coach Shannon Winzer. "We didn't play great volleyball the first two sets and were playing catch-up a lot of the time. But by the third we made some changes and with some tough serving in key moments we were able to take control for the rest of the match.

"With two games to go, we cannot give any opponent the luxury of a slow start and we will be looking to improve on that tomorrow."

WATCH | Canada Ukraine highlights:

Emily Maglio had 13 points for Canada and Kiera Van Ryk had 12.

Ukraine remained winless at 0-5. Anastasiia Kraiduba was the team's top scorer with 16 points.

The top two teams in each of the three pools of eight qualify for next year's Paris Olympics.

Serbia and the Dominican Republic shared first place at 4-1. China and the Netherlands took 3-1 records into their game later Friday.

Canada will continue preliminary round play Saturday against Mexico at 1 a.m. ET. Live coverage of the match will be available on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

WATCH | Full coverage of Friday's Pool A match: Canada vs. Ukraine: