|
TEPIC, Nayarit, Mexico, July 12, 2022.- Canada
beat the Mexico 3-1 (33-31, 22-25, 25-19, 25-21)
in their second tournament victory at the Men’s
NORCECA Final Six Pan American Cup on Tuesday at
the Amado Nervo Auditorium of Tepic, Nayarit.
Canada improved their record 2-0 leading their
win over Mexico with a 58-42 margin in kills and
a one-point margin (7-6) in aces. Mexico held a
slim 7-6 in blocks to drop to an 0-2 record.
Canada committed 41 unforced errors and the host
a total of 34.
The first set was a party of points with both
teams losing several set points to a thrilling
33-31 finish for Canada. In the third set,
outside hitter Jesse Elser of Canada, suffered
an ankle injury as he fell defending over the
net.
Outside hitter Brandon Koppers led Canada’s
scorers with 19 points on 15 kills, 3 blocks and
one ace, followed by opposite hitter Jordan
Canham with 13 points and outside hitter Logan
House with 13 points all on kills.
Two Mexican players scored double-figures;
opposite player Diego Gonzalez with 18 points on
14 kills, 3 blocks and one ace, and middle
blocker Axel Tellez scoring 11 points on 5
kills, 3 blocks and 3 aces.
Canada (2-0) and Cuba (2-0) will meet on
Wednesday, and Mexico (0-2) goes up against
Dominican Republic (0-2).
Brandon Koppers, Top scorer of Canada:
“Mexico played a lot of great defenses, a lot of
big points and big rallies, so a lot was about
managing the momentum and how loud the fans were
and just trying to play our game. We are going
to play our best every single night and our goal
is to win as many matches as we can, that’s our
goal and hopefully will go home with the gold
medal. For tomorrow’s match, we are going to
watch a lot of videos of Cuba, the have really
great spikes, serves and blocks; so, the key is
to make them play our game, we play a little
more block-defense than they do, we need to
transition and try to put them out of system and
hold our hard serves”.
Dan Ota, Head Coach of Canada:
“Mexico gave us all we could handle, they played
very hard and a very difficult opponent. We won
a difficult first set, lost the second and when
Jesse Elser got injured our team rallied around
and wanted to win for him, I am proud of how the
responded in this difficult situation and also
handled the fans that were very loud. Our next
opponent, Cuba, is a really good team and my
players know them well from watching them play
when they were younger; to have a chance to play
such a quality team like Cuba is a great
opportunity for us, hopefully we’ll be able to
put our best effort”.
Jorge Azair, Head Coach of Mexico:
“It’s difficult to take in the loss. We had some
good moments, but we are still lacking to close
in important moments. Our counterattack and
defense are in trouble; the guys get nervous in
moments they should be able to score because we
are defending well, but they will improve with
more consecutive matches like this one. We
aren’t happy and we could have pressured more.
The qualification is still in our hands, and we
must come out strong tomorrow, we will work
hard, the level of play with Dominican Republic
is similar, but we are coming from five sets
yesterday and four today. We will watch some
videos to determine how we’re going to play
tactically speaking”. |
