USA finishes in fifth place after beating Dominican Republic at Pan Am Cup

MEXICO CITY, Mexico, August 23, 2013.-  The United States finished in fifth place after defeating Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-14) at VIII Men’s Pan American Cup.

Taylor Sander scored 17 points for the American Team and Shawn Sangrey recorded 9. Dominican Henry Omar Tapia finished with 10.

“Congratulations to USA, they imposed their style on the court, with a great level at this match. We went out with a low attitude. We made a lost of mistakes and haven’t increased our performance on the court.,” said Dominican captain Miguel Cáceres.

“Finishing in fifth place was not what we really wanted. Our goal was to defend the title. We are disappointed, but I hope this can help us as an experience to improve,”

“Yesterday we had the opportunity to win in four sets and we couldn’t. I was worried about the players would be doen, but we responded well. We played three matches in five sets against Dominican Republic on the first round, Mexico and Puerto Rico,” Shawn Patchel, coach of United States remarked.

“We expected to return to the podium just like last year. Unfortunately We couldn’t det the medal”, said Osiel Vazquez. Our next goal is to work for the U23 World Championship, because some of the guys will also be at that tournament as well as in the Continental Championship to be played in Canada in september.”