Canada defeats Puerto Rico and will seek its first gold medal 

LIMA, Peru, May 10, 2019 - Canada beat Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-15) and on Saturday at 15:00 hours will clash against Cuba in the final of the fourth edition of the U21 Pan American Cup, the last qualifying event for the Bahrain World Cup.

There was no block or defense tactic that could stop the annihilating Canadian attack that was commanded by: Xander Ketrzynski and Brodie Hofer who added 13 points each, Michael Dowhaniuk got 11 points and Luis Lange 10. In Puerto Rico, Johan Leon reached the maximum of 7 points.

Canada was widely superior in all the lines: attack (36-19), block (10-3) and service (9-5). In unforced errors, Canadians had 25 and the Caribbeans 20.

Adam Simac, coach of Canada: Our coaching staff prepared us very well for this game, we had studied their game and which players to deactivate, to make sure they did not have an easy day. In this game, we were able to test other players and the result was very successful. The duel against Cuba will be exciting, our key to success will be playing our style of volleyball, if we play with the heart I think it will be a very entertaining match.

Francisco Negrón, DT of Puerto Rico: This was a procedural match, it has nothing to do with the classification and all the boys could play. Chile is going to make us a good game, I think both teams have many similarities in their training, especially the attack by the corners, we will see which corner gets more benefit for tomorrow.

Puerto Rico should recover quickly from today's defeat, to play tomorrow at 1:00 pm against Chile. The winner will receive the bronze medal of the U21 Pan American Cup and its automatic classification to the World Championship.

Then, at 3:00 pm, the U21 World Cup defending champion, Cuba, faces Canada, which has accumulated a silver medal and two bronze medals in three previous editions of the U21 Pan-American Cup.