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RENO, USA (Aug. 13, 2015)
– A Dominican Republic comeback came up just a little short as
Canada won its second Pan American Cup pool play match, 25-18,
25-21, 27-29, 17-25, 15-13 on Thursday at the Reno Events
Center.
Canada (2-0) will conclude pool play on Friday against Brazil.
Dominican Republic (0-2) will face Puerto Rico.
After Canada won the first two sets and held two match points in
the third. But a combination of errors by Canada and Dominican
plays gave the Caribbean country the 29-27. It held the momentum
and took a 14-6 lead in the fourth set and went on to a
relatively easy victory.
Canada coach Georges Laplante made several substitutions for the
fifth set. Outside hitter Stephen Maar led Canada to an 8-3 lead
in the tiebreaker, but the Dominican Republic fought back with a
6-1 run and tied it at 9-9 and then took a 12-10 lead. Canada
used a 4-0 run to take match point at 14-12. The Dominican
scored once more on Canada’s double-contact violation before
Canada’s Jason Derocco won it with a kill.
Opposite Colton De Man and Maar led Canada, each finishing with
14 points. Maar had 12 spikes and two blocks. De Man finished
with 11 spikes, one block and two aces. Canada’s middle blocker
Braden Mclean finished with a match-high six blocks and a total
of 12 points.
Dominican Republic outside hitter Luis Adames led all scorers
with 20 points on a match-high 18 spikes, one block and one ace.
Henry Lopez added 19 points on 16 attacks, two blocks and one
ace.
Dominican Republic led in spikes (57-55) while Canada led in
blocks (16-11) and aces (5-4). Canada had 34 scoring errors
while the Dominican had 33. Canada’s hitting efficiency was
.224 while Dominican Republic’s hit .151.
Canada captain Brett Walsh
“That match goes to show that volleyball is a momentum gam,” “We
had momentum for the first two and half sets and then they got a
couple of points and it totally switched on us and next thing
you know we’re in five sets. We’re happy we got the win for
sure. I think it’s also important to see the depth of our team
and that anyone can come off the bench and compete and still
come out on top.”
Canada coach Georges Laplante
“The guys that started the match were executing and doing the
right thing,” “The guys that came off the bench played really
well and that helped us in the fifth game. It’s good that we can
come out of a match like that with a win. All wins are good.”
Dominican Republic coach Jose Cutino
“It was a different match than yesterday,” “Tactically it was a
good game for us. Some important points were lost because of our
lack of experience but a lot of credit goes to their blocking.
Now our focus turns to Puerto Rico.”
Dominican Republic captain Jonathan Cruz
“We’re feeling more adjusted than yesterday, so we’re happy
about that,” “We expect our high level of play to continue. We
have a lot of volleyball to play and we’re going to go for it.” |
