Canada and Puerto Rico join semi finals of NORCECA’s U-21 

MONTERREY, Mexico, August 11, 2006.- Canada and Puerto Rico joined USA and Cuba in the semi finals of the NORCECA Men’s U-21 Championship. On Saturday the Canadians will meet the Americans and Puerto Ricans will go against the Cubans. In a match for the fifth position, Mexico meets Dominican Republic.

Canada played almost a perfect game to get a 25-14, 25-15, 25-17 victory over Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico defeated host Mexico by score of 25-22, 25-16, 25-21.

The North Americans utilized its high blocking to stop the Dominicans and provoke many errors in their offense.

“Our blocking created problems to their attack,” said George Laplante, the Canadian coach. “Besides, our serves carried us to the victory.”

“My team has been training for a short period and this is their first international experience,” said Ventura Fernandez, the Dominican coach. “The pressure was our worst enemy.”

Andre Morin was the top Canadian scorer with 17 points and Thomas Jarmoc added 10. Melvin Frias had 9 points for Dominican Republic.

Puerto Rico had a good start in the first set only to see the Mexicans tie it up at 18-all. After a fourth evened score at 21, the Puerto Ricans capitalized several mistakes to prevail. The rest of the match was dominated by the eventual winners.

Jean Ortiz led Puerto Rico with 13 points and Andres Cruz chipped in 11. Juan Virgen was the top Mexican scorer with 11 points.

“We knew the kind of atmosphere we were going to face, but the team came in very focused,” said Angel Rivera, the Puerto Rican coach in reference to the crowd of 2,500 cheering for the host team. “Mexico is a great team but our reception and attack was good tonight.”

The winners of Saturday semi finals will secure tickets for next year’s FIVB Junior World Championship. A third berth for the world event will be available for the winner of the bronze medal match on Sunday.