USA over Barbados at U21 Pan Am Cup

Calgary, Aug. 06, 2025: USA managed a 3-0 win over Barbados today at 2025 NORCECA U21 Men’s Pan American Cup at the 7 Chiefs Sportsplex & Chief Jim Starlight Centre near Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

The score was 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-14).

The match seemed one-sided in favor of USA, until Barbados put on a fight in the second set keeping the contest very tight until the last point. However, the Americans regrouped to dominate the third and final set.

John Hawks, USA’s U21 Head Coach, commented: “Congrats to Barbados for giving us that challenge – they are in the tournament, they’re having fun and starting to compete a bit. It was good for our guys to get a little uncomfortable and battle through those situations. We have some guys that are vying to get on to the U21 (Worlds) team and improve themselves. Overall, they (Barbados) were mostly float serving at us, so we hadn’t seen that yet, and we had a little challenge passing that float and staying in system. …. We need to clean that up a little bit. But for us it’s a good win, and we’ll take it!”

USA led in attack points (47-32), blocks (10-5) and ace serves (3-1). USA made a couple more errors (17-15).

John Stuart, Barbados head coach, was pleased with his team’s effort: “I’m very grateful for how the guys performed – they showed a lot of fight and a lot of heart. All I want to see is improvement every game, and for their level to go up and up, that’s all I’m asking for and that’s that they showed today.”

Outside hitter Marek Turner (USA) led all scorers with 18 points (13 kills & 5 blocks).  Opposite Isaiah Francis led Barbados with 17 (15 kills, a block and an ace).

This match kicked off day 2 of the tournament, which runs to August 10.