Canada and Puerto Rico open Pan Am Men’s Cup

GATINEAU, Quebec, June 13, 2011 - The 10-country Pan Am Cup men’s volleyball tournament which gets underway on Monday at the Centre Robert-Guertin in Gatineau, Quebec.

There are three pools: in Group A it is Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico; in Group B, Canada, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic and Group C, the USA, Argentina, Panama and the Bahamas.

The tournament gets underway with the opening ceremonies at 11:45 a.m. followed by the match between Canada and Puerto Rico. Then USA faces Bahamas, Argentina plays Panama and Brazil and Mexico conclude the first day of round robin. Venezuela and the Dominican Republic have their first match on Tuesday.

The round robin continues Tuesday and Wednesday.  The quarterfinals are Thursday, semifinals Friday and the placement matches Saturday.

Here follows the excerpts of the head coaches’ statements on Sunday:

Juan Manuel Cichello, Argentina: “Argentina has a young team preparing for the World Junior Championship. We would like to increase our level of play at the Pan American Cup by playing some strong and experienced teams.”

Raymond Wilson, Bahamas:  “We expect good representation from the Bahamas. It is our first time at a competition of this magnitude and we expect players to perform at a high level and meet the expectation of the tournament and establish ourselves as good volleyball players from Bahamas.”

Flavio Marino, Brazil:  “This tournament is of great importance for the Brazilian military selection as it will prepare us for the 5^th CISM Military World Games which will take place in July in Rio de Janeiro. This tournament will serve as preparation and will be a big test for our team.”

Glenn Hoag, Canada: “We would like to welcome all the teams to the event. Pan Am Cup has become a very good tournament both for promotion of the sport and for the quality of the teams and athletes that are present. We will use this event as a starting point for the summer activities in preparation for NORCECA championship in September.”

Jacinto Campechano, Dominican Republic:  “We will be fighting for a medal in this tournament.”

Jorge Miguel Azair Lopez, Mexico:  “We are happy to be in this competition, we come with a young team. Like all teams we expect to see in this competition players who can represent us in the Pan American Games.”

Sergio Ballestas, Panama: “This tournament will be difficult. We will try to offer our best performance. The guys are happy to play well and do things right. We expect to finish 3^rd in our pool as United States and Argentina are strong Teams. We will fight with Bahamas for third place.”

Carlos Rodriguez, Puerto Rico: “This is a young Puerto Rican team with a combination of junior players that will play in the World Junior Champ in Brazil and players who practice with the A Team in Puerto Rico. Our expectation is to increase our level of play as the tournament progress and gain valuable experience in each of our match.  This tournament will be good experience for our young player to build on for the future of the Puerto Rican National Team.  In our pool, Canada will be a strong opponent in our pool. We hope that our players will do their best in this tournament.”

Gordon Mayroth, USA: “We are happy to be in Canada and thank everyone for hosting this important event. The USA has had good results at this tournament in the last 4 showings and we hope to continue that streak. We have a mix of players, some this is their 1^st major event some are part of our men’s national Team. We have not played with this group yet, so I think many teams here are very talented and have more experience together.”