|
EDMONTON, Canada, January 9, 2015 – Hosts Canada advanced one
step closer to the 2016 Rio Olympics Games by defeating Puerto
Rico 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-23) in the second day of actions at
the NORCECA Men’s Volleyball Qualification Tournament in front
of a full house at Saville Sports Centre in Edmonton on
Saturday.
The Canadians needs one more victory against Cuba on Sunday to
punch the ticket to the Olympics. Cuba meets Mexico later
today.
John Gordon Perrin and Daniel Jansen Vandoorn led the Canadian
offense with 14 and 10 points, respectively while Dallas Soonias
and Toontje Van Lankvelt each contributed nine tallies.
Maurice Torres was the best scorer of Puerto Rico with 14
points, followed by Sequiel Sanchez with nine points.
The winners dominated their opponents in all facets of the game
with a 42-29 advantage in kills, 11-5 in blocks, including six
by Jansen Vandoorn, and 5-3 in aces with Tyler Sanders landing
three winners from the service line.
Glenn Hoag, Coach of Canada:
“We were expecting a tough match against Puerto Rico, and that’s
what we got. They’re a feisty team, and I told the guys
yesterday to be careful of provoking them because they didn’t
have a great match yesterday and I knew they would be fired up
today. Our sub guys really made a difference today. Fred Winters
was amazing off the bench, Nick too, and Rudy got us some really
crucial blocks late in the match as well. That was big for us
today, and if we can get that same effort tomorrow, I think
we’ll be ok.”
On Facing Cuba:
They haven’t changed much from what we’ve seen of them in the
past, and we’ve played them a lot in World League and NORCECA.
They’re really big and physical and a very strong blocking team,
so we’ll have to be careful with our attacking. But, they’re not
as a strong on serve-receive so I think we can exploit them on
the serve a little bit.”
John Gordon Perrin, Player of Canada:
“That was a huge win. Winning in three straight was critical
because we need all the points we can get. We’re back-to-back
with Cuba now, same record, so it’s all coming down to tomorrow
night. We played better today, but we didn’t play well with the
lead today. We had a couple of good gaps on them, but we allowed
them to close those and get back into the set. If we can keep
running away with those sets when we have those leads, our game
will be a lot better. I think our blocking was the difference
today. We got some really key blocks late in the match that
really helped us to the win.”
Javier Gaspar, Coach of Puerto Rico:
“As soon as we stabilized our serve reception we were able to
battle against Canada. We fought until the last point and that’s
something I ask to my players. Tomorrow against Mexico we need
to have more consistency and minimize the errors. That’s a
crucial match for us and in the first two matches I have rotated
my players and gave a little rest to some of them who needed
it.”
Steven Morales, Player of Puerto Rico:
“I think we played an excellent game against Canada and it helps
us to be ready for the match against Mexico. The key for us is
to continue playing together and then get the victory in the
most important match for our team.” |
