Canada downs Suriname in debut at Men’s Pan Am Cup

COLIMA, Mexico, June 16, 2019. - Canada downed Suriname 3-0 (25-14, 25-19, 25-16) in their Men’s Pan American Cup debut at the Multifunctional Auditorium of Colima, Mexico.

The first match in pool A showed a consistent performance from Canada and a strong effort by Suriname who pushed forward in the second set.

Canada held a robust 28-16 advantage in spikes, 7-2 margin in blocks and 7-1 in aces. Both sides finished with numerous errors, Canada with 30 and Suriname with 33.

Wing spiker Braedon Friesen led Canada’s scorers with 9 points on 8 kills and one ace; middle blocker Danny Demyanenko scored 8 points on 4 kills and 4 effective blocks, while opposite Casey Schouten contributed with 6 points. Keven Sporkslede scored 8 points for Suriname.

Canada (1-0) will face Cuba in their next performance, while Suriname (0-1) plays to Argentina.

Comments:

Danny Demyanenko, captain Canada: “Both were trying to find their legs a little bit, overall the match was good but we didn’t quite hit our stride. We’re just trying to iron out the nervousness that comes with the beginning of a competition; we are looking forward to being more aggressive”.

Keven Sporkslede, captain Suriname: “My team was nervous in the beginning but we started playing our own volleyball and you could see the difference in the scores in the second set. Our reception fell and that made the difference”.

John Barrett, coach Canada: “We are just trying to find our rhythm; we’ve only been here a day and a half so the heat is something new for us. Almost all our players had a chance to play and tomorrow we expect a difficult match against Cuba; we need to improve a little bit of everything”.

Roberto Joval, coach Suriname: “I am glad to have played the first game; we have a feeling of this tournament. We had a rough start but I am impressed of the fighting spirit of my team and try to pick maybe one set, they didn’t give up. At the end the experience of Canada prevailed”.