Peru swept Chile in first win at U23 Pan American Cup

HAVANA, Cuba, July 14, 2025.- Peru earned their first win after sweeping Chile 25-12, 25-14 and 25-20 on day four of the U23 Men’s Pan American Cup being held at the capital’s coliseum.

Peru was able to smile in a little over an over against their traditional opponent, with a record of one win and three losses.

The attacking was balanced (38-32), but the winners held advantage in blocks (8-4) and in serves (9-2), as well as their clean performance committing only eight errors against 21 from their opponents.

Outside hitter Sebastián Blanco was the leading scorer with 19 points, while his teammate Leonel Despaigne with 16 was the other with double digits.

For the opponents, the attacker-receiver Rafael Fuentes and opposite Ian Gei were the most productive with 12 and 10 tallies, respectively.

Juan Carlos Gala, head coach of Peru said “Our matches against Chile are always battled, but we prepared to face any opponent, but we were expecting more resistance. The group complied, we tried not to commit errors, work in blocking and defense”.

“Chile has a strong server, but not at Cuba’s velocity and we played against them, so my team did a good analysis before the game, and it went as expected”.

“Having won 3-0 and like we did, in which Chile put some difficulties in the third, and in the end the team recovered their way and won, makes us feel happy”.

Peruvian Leonel Despaigne, second top scorer of the match, said “we were confident of what we wanted, we came from facing strong matches in which we couldn’t win. With Chile we wanted to give our all and this is the result of our work. We still have to face Nicaragua, we are looking for a 3-0 to battle for a medal”.

Iván Villarreal, Chilean coach, lamented that “we played badly, we couldn’t solve our reception and we didn’t perform with our three fronts in attack. We didn’t attack with the second hit, which was the only alternative, we didn't even adjust our blocks to the opponent’s offense, but this is an opportunity to take out fresh ideas to face them again for the bronze medal. We’ll see if we might turn our luck”.

Rafael Fuentes, the second most productive player of Chile, said “it looks like because of our lack of maturity we couldn’t solve actions that we must have done, we aren’t used to lose like this against this opponent, so I think that in the next match, if we face each other again for the podium, we must present a different volleyball”.