Dominican Elvis Contreras was elected as MVP

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 11, 2006.- Dominican Elvis Contreras, whose lightning spikes contributed to a total of 117 points, was elected as the Most Valuable Player of the First Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup won by USA. Besides the MVP trophy, Contreras received a plaque as the top scorer of the competition. He was joined in the All-Star Team by teammates Cristian Cruz as best setter and Carlos Velazquez as best libero. Mexican Jose Martell was the best spiker and American Richard Lambourne made the team as best defender. Canadian Murray Grapentine was the best blocker and Cuban Rolando Junquin was the awarded as the best server. During the closing ceremony, the Organizing Committee and the Mexican Volleyball Federation presented a plaque to Mexican referee Fernando Nava for his long and successful international career. Spanish

USA defeated Dominican Republic and won the gold medal

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 11, 2003.- USA recovered from losing the first set and won the gold medal of the First Men’s Pan American Volleyball up defeating the Dominican Republic by score of 17-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-23. Both teams qualified to the Americas Cup to be held in Venezuela next September. Bronze medallist Canada also won a ticket to compete in that event. David McKienzie led the Americans with 16 points followed by Riley Salmon with 10. Phillip Eatherton, Ryan Miller and William Priddy cooperated with 9, 8 and 7 respectively. Dominican Jose Caceres was the top scorer of the match with 24 points, Elvis Contreras had 12 and Eury Almonte 9. “The Dominican Republic is a very improved team and we had to battle for this win,” said the American coach, Hugh McCutcheon. “We had the fortune of having some experienced players who were vital in the late part of the sets. I am very happy being the champions and this is a good start of our season.” Julio Frias, the Dominican coach said: “We are satisfied with the second place. USA is a great team and we gave 100 percent to battle against them. We changed our attack pattern and they still could block very well. Congratulations to them and to my players.” More Spanish

Canada won the bronze medal in Pan Am Cup

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 11, 2006.- Canada won the bronze medal of the First Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup with a victory over Mexico in straight sets (25-22, 25-18, 25-22). The win gave the Canadians a ticket to the next America’s Cup to be held in Venezuela in September. Louis-Pierre Mainville and Pascal Cardinal each had 13 points for Canada and Fred Winters added 10. Mexican Jose Martell led all the scorers of the match with 18 points. “Today the blocking was the key for us and I am satisfied with the third place,” said Glenn Hoag, the Canadian coach. “But my goal here as new coach was to know more about my players and now with this experience we can go back home and correct our mistakes in game situations.” The solid spikes of Louis-Pierre Mainville, who scored eight points, cleared the road to Canada in the first set. Mario Becerra maintained the Mexicans alive in a set where the Canadians led 8-4 and 16-12 during the pauses. Fred Winters broke a 12-12 tie with a spike and Scott Koskie followed with a couple of blocks and Canada took the second set establishing a high wall. Chris Meehan finished out with a big block. Mexico led 8-7 at the first pause of the third set, but Canada quickly took command of the score behind the spikes of Chris Meehan and the rest was history. Spanish

USA moves to the gold medal match

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 10, 2006.- USA advanced to the gold medal match of the First Men’s Pan American  Volleyball Cup in defeating Canada in straight sets by score of 25-23, 26-24, 25-19. James Polster and Brook Billings, with 17 and 13 points respectively, were the top scorers of USA while Dallas Soonias and Fred Winters had 13 and 12 for Canada. “We are starting our season and the teams were not able to play their best volleyball,” said Hugh McCutcheon, the USA coach. “We were fortunate to make a couple of plays at the end of the first two sets.” “Now we are n the finals of this event and we are going to play as hard as we can to take the title,” he added. Glenn Hoag, the Canadian coach said: “At a global level we are not able to compete against a team like USA. We need to go back home and focus on building our confidence.” USA led 8-6 and 16-9 in the first set relying on the attack of veteran William Priddy, but several unforced errors mixed with a good reaction by Canada led by Fred Winters conduced to a tie-up at 22. But after 23-all, American Polster attacked and served for the set. The second set was a battle from start to finish and neither of the teams had a lead of more than one point until USA went ahead 20-18. Canada came back to even the score at 24 but a spike by Billings followed by a big block by David Lee gave the triumph to USA. The combination of Polster and Billings worked very smooth in the third set when the Americans also played great defence at the net and won relatively easy. Spanish

Cuba defeated Panama and finished in fifth place

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 10, 2006.-  Cuba finished in the fifth position at the First Men’s Pan American Cup with an easy win over Panama in straight sets by score of 25-17, 25-11, 25-17. Raidel Delgado was the top Cuban scorer with 13 points, Pedro Ruiz and Yadier Sanchez each had 10 and Rolando Junquin added 9. Edward Diaz had 10 for Panama. The spikes and blocking of Pedro Ruiz sent Cuba to the victory in the first set. As expected, the Cubans dominated their less experienced opponents in every aspect of the game. It was a repeated story in the second set, this time with Rolando Junquin leading the Cuban side with solid hitting and blocking. Yadier Sanchez led the Cuban strong offence in the third set and finished the match with a subtle winner touch that landed in the Panamanian side. Spanish

Trinidad & Tobago beat Panama and qualified in sixth place

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 10, 2006.- Trinidad & Tobago defeated Panama in four sets and qualified in sixth place at the First Pan American Men’s Volleyball Cup. With the victory (25-23, 25-17, 23-25, 25-17), the Trinidadians avenged a loss to Panama during the NORCECA Second Round of the 2006 World Championships suffered in Havana, Cuba last year. Captain Nolan Tash scored 27 points –the most by a player in a single game so far- leading four Trinidadians in double figures. Tash had 22 spikes and five serving aces. Sean Morrison followed with 15 and Jessel Davis and Marc Honore each had 11. Domingo Avila was the best scorer for Panama with 13 points. Spanish

Historic victory for Dominican Republic over Cuba

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 9, 2006.- The Dominican Republic achieved a historic triumph by defeating Cuba in four sets (25-23, 28-26, 21-25, 25-20) during the quarterfinals of the First Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup. It was the first victory of a Dominican men’s team over Cuba in the last 44 years, with the previous one attained at the Central American and Caribbean Games held in Jamaica in 1962. Elvis Contreras and Jose Caceres scored 26 and 23 points respectively leading the Dominican attack with Eury Almonte adding 9. Raidel Gonzalez was the top Cuban scorer with 18 points and Yadier Sanchez added 14. “I know this triumph is going to make happy a lot of people in our country,” said Julio Frias, the Dominican coach. “We have defeated a very powerful team.” “Our reception was good and it allowed us to set the attack, and we also served better tonight,” he added. “The team had an extra motivation playing against Cuba and we entered the court with a lot of determination,” said Contreras. “They are a young team but with great quality and very talented.” More Spanish

Canada advanced to a semis match against USA

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 9, 2006.- Canada advanced to a semi final match against United States at the First Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup with an easy victory over Panama in straight sets by score of 25-14, 25-15, 25-19.  Canadian coach Glenn Hoag rotated his players and got a balanced attack with Brett Youngberg as the only scorer in double figures with 10. Christian Bernier, Dallas Soonias and Fred Winters each had 7 points, and Louis-Pierre Mainville, Pascal Cardinal, Murray Grapentine and Chris Meehan each scoring 6 points. Panamanian Jose Cunningham led his team with 8. “They (USA) are a very stable team and I think for us is a matter of getting more fluid,” said Hoag in anticipation of the Saturday’s match. “I am looking forward to have a good competition but we still need to work in our rhythm and combinations.” Canada took the lead 8-2 in the first set, but Panama reacted and won the next eight points with the spikes of Jose Cunningham. However, the Canadians grabbed the lead back behind the offence and blocking of Murray Grapentine and Brett Youngberg and were ahead 16-10 at the second pause. The services by Fred Winters did the rest of the damage. In the second set, the Canadians led 8-6 and 16-11 at the technical time-outs with big production from Winters. Then Louis-Pierre Mainville came from the bench providing solid blocks. The third set was not different than the previous two with Canada using mostly bench players but getting more or less the same results Spanish

USA moves to semi finals with victory over Cuba in five sets 

TIJUANA, Baja California, June 7, 2006.- USA defeated Cuba in five sets advancing to the semi finals of the First Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup. The score was 20-25, 25-18, 25-23, 21-25, 15-9. The Americans joined Mexico in the semi finals while Cuba will meet Dominican Republic and Panama will play Canada in the next round. David McKienzie was the top scorer of USA with 16 points, William Priddy had 15, Phillip Eatherton 11 and Riley Salmon chipped in 9 points. Cuban Rolando Junquin was the best scorer of the match with 19 points, Yohan Llanes added 15, Yadier Sanchez and Darien Garcia each had 12 and Jesus Cruz produced 9 points. Thursday will be a rest day and the action resumes on Friday with the quarterfinals in Mexicali. Spanish

Mexico triumphed again in a five-setter

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 7, 2006.- Jose Martell scored five points in the tie-breaker and Mexico won a second five-setter in as many days by defeating Dominican Republic 23-25, 25-21, 17-25, 25-21, 15-12, in the First Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup. With the victory the host Mexicans advanced to the semi final phase as winners of Pool A with a 3-0 record. Ivan Contreras was the top scorer of Mexico with 24 points and Martell and Gustavo Meyer contributed with 18 and 12 respectively. Dominicans Elvis Contreras and Jose Caceres had 27 and 26 points and Eury Almonte added 12. “The matches against Dominican Republic are always a battle and this was not the exception,” said Jorge Azair, the Mexican coach. More Spanish

Canada displayed high attack and block 

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 7, 2006.- Canada came back strong after playing five sets the night before and blanked Trinidad & Tobago 25-17, 25-9, 25-19 displaying its power game. Fred Winters and Christian Bernier each scored 10 points as leaders of the Canadian attack and Pascal Cardinal added 9. Trinidadian Nolan Tash led all the scorers with 15 points. “We are still working on many things but we came focused to execute,” said Glenn Hoag, the Canadian coach. “We respect every team and Trinidad has many good individual players who need to gain consistency.” “Canada gave us a lot of problems with the blocking in the second set,” said Gideon Dickson, the coach of Trinidad & Tobago. “Definitely it is very important for us to compete at this level against teams like Canada.” The spikes of Cardinal and Bernier gave Canada leads of 8-5 and 16-9 during the technical time-outs of the first set and the high attack of the Canadians was too much for the Trinidadians. In the second set, it was the high wall of Canada’s blocking that caused problems to their opponents. After a 8-2 start, the Canadians kept the pressure until the end Despite an early resistance that saw the Trinidadians evened at 11 in the third set, the Canadians maintained the consistency of their attack and blocking and eventually won the match. Spanish

Dominican Republic evens its record 

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 6, 2006.- The Dominican Republic overcame a slow start and defeated Trinidad & Tobago in straight sets evening its record in the First Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup. After losing to Canada on the opening day, the Dominicans came back and beat the Trinidadians 26-24, 25-16, 25-20 with Elvis Contreras, Jose Caceres and Eury Almonte contributing with 13, 12 and 8 points respectively. Nolan Tash had 11 points for Trinidad & Tobago (1-2). “We had problems with our reception in the first set,” said Julio Frias, the Dominican coach, “but from the second set on, we definitely improved that part of our game and made some key adjustments.” Gideon Dickson, the coach of Trinidad & Tobago: “This is a new beginning for our team. We are a team under development and we are learning with each match. More Spanish

Mexico edged Canada in sensational match

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 6, 2006.- Mexico edged Canada in a five-set thriller with captain Ivan Contreras spiking for the last point of the sensational match in the First Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup. The final score was 25-21, 25-21, 19-25, 14-25, 21-19 and Mexico improved its record to 2-0 in Pool A. Canada is tied with Dominican Republic in second place with 1-1. Contreras led four Mexican in double figures with 21 points. Jose Martell and Carlos Guerra each added 15 and Gustavo Meyer had 11. Pascal Cardinal was the best Canadian with 21 points, Steve Brinkman scored 16 and Dallas Soonias added 15. “We had not beaten Canada in a long time, so it is a great triumph,” said Jorge Azair, the Mexican coach, “We have a group of players with experience from the European Leagues, like Ivan, Guerra and Meyer with a winning mentality. What we need is more support and to have them more time together.” “Ivan is a great player and he provides leadership to his younger teammates,” said Glenn Hoag, the Canadian coach. “He is very consistent and Mexico played well and deserved the victory.” More Spanish

Mexico started with the right foot

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 5, 2006.- Mexico started the Men’s Pan American Cup with the right foot blanking Trinidad & Tobago 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-14) relying on the experience and better technique. Ivan Contreras and Jose Martell, with 14 and 10 points respectively, led Mexico and Carlos Guerra and Victor Porras each added 9. Sean Morrison was the best for Trinidad with 9 points. “It was a real surprise to see Trinidad to play at the level they showed tonight,” said Jorge Azair, the Mexican coach. “They played a great first set and deserve my congratulations.” “We need to make some adjustments in our team with the players like Contreras, Meyer and Guerra who just reported to the squad, but I am confident we will improve as the tournament progresses,” he added. More Spanish

Baja California to host U-18 and U-19 World Championships next year

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 5, 2006.- The 2007 Youth Volleyball World Championships, in both genders, will be held in Baja California, Mexico. The announcement was made by Mr. Cristobal Marte, president of the NORCECA Confederation, during the opening ceremony of the First Men’s Pan American Cup. “On behalf of Doctor Ruben Acosta Hernandez, president of the FIVB, I am honoured to announce the decision to grant Baja California the rights to host those events as a recognition to the excellence of Baja California, and its authorities, as sports events organizers,” said Marte. “Thirty two teams from the five continents will be here next year to compete in the U-18 and U-19 World Championships,” Marte added. “You have demonstrated with your hard work the capability to stage those great championships.” Marte stated that the Women’s Pan American Cup is the biggest volleyball continental event and was born in Baja California. “Here we are starting this men’s cup that will be held in Baja California for its three first editions and I am sure it is going to follow the steps of the women’s cup,” said Marte. The Governor of Baja California, Mr. Eugenio Elorduy Walther, pronounced the event formally inaugurated in the presence of Mr. Samuel Ramos, Municipal President of BC and Professor Alejandro Salinas, president of the Mexican Volleyball Federation. Spanish

Canadians’s blocking was the key in their first win

MEXICALI, Baja California, June 5, 2006.- Canada recovered from a slow start and defeated the Dominican Republic 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-18) during the first match of the inaugural Men’s Pan American Cup. The bigger Canadians dominated the game at the net, building up a high wall that created a lot of problems to the Dominicans. Fred Winters led Canada with 20 points followed by Pascal Cardinal and Steve Brinkman with 14 and 11 respectively. Elvis Contreras led all the scorers with 26 points but he was the only Dominican in double figures. “We improved our serves after the first set and that contributed to our better blocking,” said Murray Grapentine, the captain of Canada.  More Spanish

USA needed 54 minutes to beat Panama

TIJUANA, Baja California, June 5, 2006.- USA only needed 54 minutes to defeat Panama 3-0 (25-11, 25-9, 25-8) in the first match of Pool B of the Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup. The Americans, currently number five on the FIVB World Rankings, overmatched their opponents in size, experience and playing techniques. The NORCECA’s continental champions are considered the favourite to win the tournament with Canada and Cuba rated as their biggest opponents. Brook Billings was the top scorer for USA with 9 points followed by James Polster with 9. During the third set of the lopsided match, American coach Hugh McCutcheon used his reserve players with the same or even better results. USA rest on Tuesday and the Panamanians face Cuba in Pool B. Meanwhile, in Mexicali, the Dominican Republic (0-1) meet Trinidad & Tobago (0-1) while Canada and Mexico, both winners on Monday, play in Pool A. Spanish

Seven Teams begin the battle in Men’s Volleyball Pan American Cup

MEXICALI, México, June 5, 2006.- Seven teams begin today the battle in the inaugural Men’s Volleyball Pan American Cup, a qualifier for the America’s Cup to be held in Venezuela next September. USA, Canada and Cuba, teams in preparation for the next World Championships in Japan, will be facing the competition of sides from Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama and Trinidad & Tobago. “This is the start of great things for the men in Norceca,” said Mr. Cristobal Marte during his words of welcome at the general technical meeting. “As it has been the case with the women’s Pan American Cup, we hope to achieve the same success with this event.” Canada will meet Dominican Republic and Mexico will face Trinidad & Tobago in Mexicali in Pool A, while USA will play against Panama in Tijuana. More Spanish

Coaches of Canada and USA are optimistic in Pan Am Cup

MEXICALI, Mexico, June 5, 2006.- USA and Canada are considered the favourite teams in the First Men’s Pan American Cup starting today in Mexicali and Tijuana, the two main cities in the State of Baja California. Both teams are using this competition as part of their platform toward the World Championships next November in Japan and their coaches sounded very optimistic while talking to the media on the eve of the start of the action. “This is the start of our international season and a good competition to begin our preparation for the next World Championships,” said Glenn Hoag, the recently hired Canadian coach. “We hope to have good matches and to perform.” Hugh McCutcheon, the American coach born in New Zealand, said this will be a very busy summer season for the USA squad. “We are very happy to be here competing against good teams and I hope this tournament will be of good help for our preparation for the World League and the World Championships. It is also our goal to qualify for the America’s Cup.” Cuba will be represented in the event by a young squad which includes a couple of players that are also in their roster for the World League. More Spanish