Mexico earns last ticket to Lima finishing fifth at Pan Am Cup

CORDOBA, Mexico, September 2, 2018.- Mexico earned the last ticket available to the 2019 Lima Pan American Games while finishing fifth place at the Men’s Pan American Cup over Canada 3-1 (25-18, 25-20, 20-25, 25-17) at the Arena Cordoba in Cordoba, Mexico.

The host Mexico jumped to an early lead in set one with strong serves. Canada recovered well, slowing down Mexico, still losing set two but pocketing set three with spectacular defense. Finally, Mexico got back on track benefiting from Canada’s inconsistency and finished scoring on 41 opponent errors.

Canada led in spikes 44-43 and in blocks 9-5, while Mexico led 6-5 in aces. Mexico limited their errors to 22.

Opposite player Daniel Vargas led Mexico with 18 points, with 15 kills included, and joined by wing spiker Jorge Barajas with 14 points on kills and setter Pedro Rangel adding 11 points. Canada’s leading attackers were wing spiker Blake Scheerhoorn with 17 points, including 14 kills and 2 aces, and opposite Terrel Bramwell chipped in with 11 points.

Mexican captain Pedro Rangel said his team was really motivated “we knew the importance of this match and the team performed more united than ever. Canada played strong too and that’s why it was a close match. I want to thank the support of the fans here in Cordoba”.

“Canada has tough blocking and my boys were very disciplined tactically speaking, moving forward with serves and counterattacks. Now we will study the results, some of our players are going abroad to play with their clubs and we will continue to work with younger categories” said Jorge Azair coach of Mexico.

Captain James Walsh of Canada said “we need to improve in every skill, have more consistency in serve, pass, set, spike, dig and block. Mexico played a really good match, we give credit to them and the crowd here was awesome, it was fun to play here”.