Second U21 Pan Am Cup win for Canada

FORT MCMURRAY, ALBERTA, CANADA:  Canada again thrilled its home crowd with a win over Barbados tonight at the U21 Pan American Cup at the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Centre at Keyano College in Fort McMurray.

Canada won 3-0 (25-14, 25-17, 25-16). The Canadians got off to a strong start, but faltered a bit later in the match. Barbados led at the first technical time out of the third set, but the home team tied the set at 10, and then was buoyed by Eric Loeppky’s strong serving to score six in a row.  (Loeppky ended up with 17 points as Canada’s top scorer).

Gino Brousseau, Canada’s head coach, explained: “We had a good a good start, but I had to be insistent at one point because they were not doing well, but we came back after that. At this level you have to be on top of your game all the time – it doesn’t matter who is on the other side of the net. You have to give 100 percent, and if you give your opponent an opportunity, they will take advantage of that.”

He continued: “I’m very pleased because they came back and we had a good finish. We have to work on our game plan for tomorrow because playing Brazil will be a big challenge for us. Tomorrow night we’re going to give it everything we have.”

Barbados’ coach was also satisfied with his squad.

“Today I’m happy,” said Alberto Caballero, Barbados’ head coach. “Of course Canada is a superior team, they are more physical than us but we scored a lot of points. We were leading the third set at some point and we had 10 hits. My team played very well. They blocked, they spiked, they defended!”

Ashan Jordan and Jherard Morris-Sealy scored six each for Barbados.

The tournament is a qualifier for the U21 World Championships: Brazil and Chile will battle for the ticket available to South America while Canada, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Barbados and Guatemala will be vying for the NORCECA vacancy.

May 16 (local time)

12:00  Cuba v Chile  3-0

18:00  Brazil v Barbados 3-0

20:00  Canada v Guatemala 3-0

May 17

16:00  Chile v Puerto Rico 1-3

18:00  Guatemala v Brazil 0-3

20:00  Canada v Barbados 3-0

May 18

16:00  Puerto Rico v Cuba

18:00  Barbados v Guatemala

20:00  Canada v Brazil

Finals rounds on May 19-21