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GATINEAU, Canada, June 27, 2015 – The United States will meet
Brazil on Sunday in the U21 Men’s Pan Am Cup final after a
hard-fought 3-1 (25-19, 25-22, 20-25, 25-22) victory over Canada
at the Centre Sportif de Gatineau.
Earlier on Sunday, Canada, the silver medallist in the 2011
edition, will take on Chile for bronze.
The USA took the early lead and dominated the first two sets.
Canada responded in the third and moved to the lead for the
first time halfway through the third set. With the score 19-19,
Brandon Koppers, Arthur Szwarc and captain Ryan Nickifor showed
a strong attack and blocking to lead the host team to a 25-20
victory.
Canada started well again in the fourth set, leading at the
first technical timeout 8-6. But Brenden Sander’s strong serve
hurt the Canadian defense and the Americans bounced back to
retake the lead 16-12. Canada continued to add some pressure and
narrowed the gap 18-20, but the Americans prevailed 25-22 to
prevent the host squad from playing the U21 final as they did in
Panama in 2011.
Brandon Koppers led the Canadian attack with 22 points. Captain
Ryan Nickifor contributed with 12. Brenden Sander was the key
figure for the USA with 20 points. Christopher Nugent added 11.
John Hatch, captain of the United States: “We came in with a
pretty good game plan and on the first two games we executed it
really well. Game three got away from us a little bit but I
think we did a really good job of regrouping and coming back.
Overall it was a good team victory for us, we all contributed
and we were all able to stay in it as a team. I thought that was
what really helped us get the win. Before tomorrow we are going
to watch some film, play hard and see what happens.”
Dan Friend, head coach of the United States: “I think we came
out of the gates pretty fast which was really good. Canada came
out a little slow so we were able to capitalize on that. At the
same time we saw Canada get better as the match progressed, I
thought we kept our energy up which was a good thing for us. We
dropped down a little bit on some ball control and first ball
contact but we were able to steady it at the end and put
ourselves in a position to win in that fourth game. In
tomorrow’s game we have to pass. Last time we played them
(Brazil) we didn’t pass as well as we needed to, first ball
contact has got to be better if we want to hang in with Brazil.”
Ryan Nickifor, captain of Canada: "We played them too slow in
the beginning and didn't put a lot of pressure from the service.
That's something to work on going forward this summer. We can't
wait to see what they can do when we come out more aggressively.
When we decided to play, it was too late. For the match
tomorrow, Chile is fired. We have to bring our A game and we
really want to finish with a win.”
John Barrett, head coach of Canada: "I don’t think we responded
that well in the first two sets. We were quite nervous and
couldn't execute our game plan. It took us three sets to really
get into the match. We fought hard in two sets and had the
opportunity to take the fourth one, but didn't execute at key
times so we have to use this as a growing experience. We will
talk to our players about it. We will work on the things that
didn't go well. Chile is a good team. They played Brazil very
though today and every match is a great learning experience. We
have a number of matches before the World Championships and we
have to take advantage of every one of them.” |
