Colombia defeats Canada in their debut at the Pan American Cup

LEÓN, Mexico, August 18, 2024 - Colombia defeated Canada 3-0 (27-25, 25-21, 25-18) in their debut in Pool A of the XXI Women's Pan American Volleyball Cup, which is being held in the cities of León and Irapuato in Guanajuato, Mexico.

On Monday, Colombia (1) will face Suriname at 2:00 p.m. (local time), and Canada (0) will play Peru (1) at 5:00 p.m.

The South Americans controlled the attack (48-40) and serving (4-3), while the Canadians dominated in blocking (9-5). Colombia scored 20 points from Canadian errors and conceded only 12 points on their own unforced errors.

Laura Grajales led Colombia’s offense with 16 points, followed by Ana Karina Olaya with 15 points, and Dayana Segovia with 12 points.

Lucy Forowski was the top scorer for Canada with 11 points, while Abagayle Guezen and Nyadholi Thokbuom contributed 10 points each.

In the first set, Canada reached set point (24-22) after a series of scoring points from both sides, but Colombia took advantage of a service error and a powerful kill from Ana Karina to tie the game. Laura Grajales earned a set point for Colombia with an attack (25-24), but Layne Van Buskirk denied it, tying the score again. Colombia reached their second set point with another attack from Laura, and then a Canadian error handed out the set. In the second and third sets, Colombia always kept the lead, controlling the game with attacks from Laura and Dayana Segovia, while also benefiting from consecutive errors by Canada.

María Alejandra Marín, captain of Colombia: “This is our only international competition of the year, yet we faced the match with a lot of maturity. At the beginning, maybe nerves caused us to make mistakes. In the end, we controlled the match. I think we were very disciplined in blocking and defense; they (Canada) played very fast, and we're not used to that speed. Our attackers were very consistent in controlling the ball”.

Averie Allard, captain of Canada: “We almost had the first set. We needed to keep our foot a little bit longer on the pedal and control our unforced errors. We need to execute the little things better. I believe Colombia is a more experienced team than ours, most of us play in the university. Experience and game situation goes so far in a tournament like this one. I am proud that at times we fought back and bounced some sort of grit”.

Shannon Winzer, Head Coach of Canada: “We are a really young team, so there were some really good things. I think we showed our inexperience in key situations tonight. We served way too easy and allowed Colombia to be insistent way too much. We made the easy things look hard, and the hard things we did pretty well. It’s a good starting point and we have a lot more in the tank, you’ll see us play a lot better volleyball as the week goes on. For our first game against an A team like Colombia, there’s a lot to build on”.