Mexico and USA are 2-0 at NORCECA Men’s U-21

MONTERREY, Mexico, August 9, 2006.- Mexico and USA continued on the winning road after scoring 3-0 victories over Dominican Republic and Guatemala at the NORCECA Men’s U-21 Continental Tournament, a qualifier for the 2007 Junior World Championship in Morocco.

Now Mexico and USA have 2-0 records to share the first place of Pool A. These two teams will meet on Thursday for the automatic ticket to the semi finals round. In the other match of Wednesday, Canada defeated Puerto Rico 3-1 in a close battle.

The Mexicans got a 25-16, 25-22, 25-18 victory over the Dominicans with Tomas Aguilera and Jesus Gonzalez scoring 11 points apiece. Dominican Jose Miguel Galva had a match-high 16 points.

“Now we are going out well motivated against USA,” said Mexican captain Juan Virgen. “We all know that we will have to play hard, that’s for sure.”

Ventura Fernandez, the Dominican coach, saw his team taking a step forward. “Today I saw them playing better, but we need to play harder tomorrow to get the win and stay in the tournament.”

USA utilized the blocking, its best weapon, to beat Guatemala 25-18, 25-17, 25-13 with three Americans scoring in double-digits.

Maxwell Holt, who had six blocks, led USA with 13 points. William Price and Matthew Anderson contributed 12 and 11 points respectively, and Jorge González had 8 points for Guatemala.

“Our overall game improved today, especially the blocking,” said Andy Reid, the USA coach. “Now we need to prepare for the match against the host team that is always a tough task with the crowd against the visitors.”

Meanwhile, in a Pool B match, Canada and Puerto Rico engaged in a well fought battle for the first two sets with the North Americans dominating the rest of the match of a 27-25, 29-31, 25-16, 25-15 victory.

“It was a very emotional match, but we could establish our serves and blocking despite the good game of Puerto Rico,” said George Laplante, the Canadian coach.

Andre Morin led Canada with 22 points and Thomas Jarmoc added 15. Puerto Ricans Ulises Maldonado and Andres Cruz each tallied 15 points.