Eight teams to compete at U-23 Pan American Cup
Lima, Peru, September 2, 2012 –The inaugural U-23 Women’s Pan
American Cup serves off at Miguel Grau Coliseum of El Callao in
Lima on Monday with the participation of eight teams.
Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Cuba will play in Pool A while
Canada, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Peru will compete in
Pool B.
Teams will play a preliminary pool round-robin with the top
teams of each group getting a bye to the semifinals. Teams of
second and third place will play in crossover quarterfinals with
the finals scheduled on Saturday 8.
The event is organized by the Pan American Volleyball Union in
conjunction with the Peruvian Volleyball Federation.
The General Technical Meeting was held on Sunday evening chaired
by Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, President of the Pan American Union,
Dr. Rafael Lloreda Currea, Vice President of the South American
Confederation and Juan Castro, President of the Peruvian
Federation.
The coaches of the eight sides expressed their opinions about
the tournament and their teams during the preliminary enquiry
held on Sunday morning.
Here the excerpts of their statements:
Horacio Bastit, Argentina:
“The expectations are good, we are well prepared and with a team
according to the competition, which we know will be a tough one,
but we are going to face it with confidence even though three
players had to stay back for the Club’s South American.”
Luizomar Moura, Brasil:
“We have a team of players who are 17 and 18 years-old and we
will use the Cup as a preparation for the Junior South American
Championship next October, precisely here in Lima, a very
important one since it is a qualifier to the world championship.”
Roy Hofer, Canada:
“We are excited to represent Canada at the first U-23 Pan
American Cup and we look forward to have a great competition and
representing our country with pride. It is always exciting when
countries can compete hard against each other and bring out
their best.”
Oscar Guevara, Colombia:
“We have a good projection with this junior team that took part
in the 2011 South American, the Pan American Cup in Juarez and
the Peruvian Cup where we achieved the gold medal. We are
working on longer concentrations since our goal is qualifying to
the 2014 World Championship.”
Andres Carvajal, Costa Rica:
“We all know the level we are facing, but the objective is to
have the best possible matches with good scores and to do our
best to take advantage of this first U-23 event that narrows the
gap between the minor categories and the high senior level.”
Juan Carlos Gala, Cuba:
“Our main objective is to evaluate the younger players who have
not played with the national team. In this group we have four
juniors but to promote to the big team we think first in quality
and not in age, so this cup is the moment for the less
experienced players.”
Marcos Kwiek, Dominican Republic:
“We have a lot of ambitions for this Cup with a well balanced
team that includes four Olympians, but this will be their first
real test as members or the selection in one event that will
contribute to their development as players because they will
have more playing opportunities in this transition, which is
very important.”
Jose Dos Santos, Perú:
“We have 12 players of different ages and I have just started
working with them but in these days we have worked very well,
many defense systems and they have done well, but I need the
help of all coaches from Peru to do a good job in this country,
especially to increase the height of the players.” |