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DURANGO, Mexico, August 19, 2021. - Opposite
Jake Hanes scored a tournament-high of 28 points
to lead the U.S. over Dominican Republic 3-1
(25-18, 23-25, 25-18, 26-24) at the Men’s
NORCECA Continental Championship in Durango,
Mexico.
Jake Hanes led with 28 points on 21 kills, one
block and 6 aces, followed by outside hitter
Brett Wildman and middle blocker Tyler Mitcham
with 15 points each.
United States improved their win-loss record 2-0
in pool B overpowering Dominican Republic 57-32
in attacks, 12-7 in blocks, 9-3 in aces and
scoring on 43 opponent errors while committing
21.
With 10 tallies each, outside hitter Henry López
and opposite Henry Tapia led Dominican
Republic’s scorers, Dawilin Mendez added 8
points.
On day three United States (2-0) plays against
Cuba (2-0) to decide pool B top finisher and
Dominican Republic (0-2) faces Guatemala (0-2).
Jake Hanes, top scorer of United States: “We
really enjoyed ourselves out there. We are a new
team, I think despite the short time we’ve
together we trust each other a lot. Every time
someone does something good we are really
excited for each other. We had solid
communication and we came much faster today and
it was easy to get it going offensively and
defensively”.
Andy Read, Coach of United States: “I want to
congratulate both teams for playing that hard
after everything they have dealt for the past 18
months with Covid. The Dominican team and the
U.S. played hard and with great spirit. We keep
getting better because we are still on our way
up, and the next we´ll play even better and the
following; that’s the goal of every team, to
continue to progress during the tournament. I am
very proud of my guys and their effort”.
Henry López, top scorer of Dominican Republic:
“They crushed us with their services, especially
number 9 (Jake Hanes), that forced us to play
against a really high block and that’s why they
had the advantage. Our attacks were good, it
worked well”.
Dante Mañon, Coach of Dominican Republic: “Our
reception was off when we needed it the most and
our setting was unstable. Our blocking and
attacking worked well but we are worried with
our setting, we need to adjust it. We shouldn’t
have lost the last set, they had given up and we
wasted it”. |
