RENO, USA (Aug. 12, 2015) – Canada put together a strong match and swept Puerto Rico, 3-0 (25-20,25-21, 25-19) in their Pan American Cup pool play match on Wednesday at the Reno Events Center.

Both teams will continue pool play on Thursday, when Canada will face Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico will take on Brazil.
 

Canada’s serving was especially tough as it led in aces, 9-2, led by opposite Adam Schouten who had four. Canada led in blocking (12-7) and in spikes (38-28). Puerto Rico scored on 23 Canada errors while committing 16.

Schouten led all scorers with 18 points on 12 spikes, two blocks and four aces. Outside hitter Jason Derocco added 12 points on eight spikes, three blocks and one ace.

Outside hitter Jackson Rivera led Puerto Rico with 13 points on a match‐high 13 spikes.

Canada led for the majority of the first and second sets. The third set was closer before Canada pulled away at the end.

Puerto Rico captain Edgardo Goas
“We started slow. Their serve was pretty tough for us. We had a hard time controlling their serve. I think that was a big key in the match. We haven’t practiced very much as a team. We definitely want to improve as a team and try to get better tomorrow and the next day.”
Puerto Rico coach Abdell Otero
“At the beginning we started too flat. They brought their A game in the service and it caused us a lot of problems. We need to keep and catch our rhythm between matches, try to erase this one and get ready for tomorrow.”

Canada captain Brett Walsh
“We started slow, their serve was tough for us and that was a big key in the match, “This team hasn’t practiced much together so we need to improve as a team, try to get better tomorrow and the next day and hope for the best.

“We’re happy to get the win in our first match here. There’s a lot of things we can work on. We came out a little tentative and we weren’t as aggressive as we intended to be, but we got the result we wanted so we’re happy.”

Canada coach Georges Laplante
“I think we’re just putting things in place from what we’ve been working on during the summer,” “we’re going to play some different players tomorrow. We have a good group here, everyone can play on this team so we hope everyone can get time on the court.”