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IRVINE, California,
August 15, 2009 – USA Men’s Team trounced
Guatemala with strong services en route to a
straight-set 25-8, 25-10, 25-6 victory in the
second match for the Norceca-F third round
tournament of the 2010 FIVB World Championship.
Evan Patak recorded
10 service aces and 10 killings in a 21-point
performance for the home team. Andy Hein
contributed 11 points, including two blocks
while going 9-for-9 in his attacks, and David
Smith and Jayson Jablonski each charted 8 points
with Smith recording 4 blocks.
The Americans
compiled 17 service aces, including three from
Sean Rooney during the match which lasted only
57 minutes.
Earlier, the
Dominican Republic swept Panama, 3-0 (25-19,
25-20, 25-22) at the Bren Center in Irvine,
California.
Dominican Republic
will play Guatemala in the first match on Sunday
while Panama will face the United States in the
late match.
The winner for the
Norceca-F automatically qualifies to the Final
Round of next year’s World Championship in
Italy. The second place finisher advances to a
Play-off Round later this month in Guadalajara,
Mexico, to compete against Mexico, the runner-up
of Norceca-H currently being played in Havana
and the best third placed team of the three
third round competitions of Norceca.
“In these kinds of
matches, we really try to keep the focus on
ourselves,” said U.S. Team Captain David Lee.
“We’re here to play every single match as hard
as we can.”
“I thought we were
good in the areas we have been working on,” U.S.
Head Coach Alan Knipe said. “I thought we were
serving well and were clean and crisp in
transition. “In a match like this the best
compliment you can give your opponent is to keep
playing hard.”
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