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GATINEAU, Canada, June 26, 2015 – The United States are through
to the semifinals of the U21 Men’s Pan Am Cup after a 3-0
(25-19, 25-18, 25-12) win over Mexico Friday at the Centre
Sportif de Gatineau.
The USA team dominated their North American neighbours attacks
(35-27) and blocks (13-1). Jeffrey Jendryk II led the US attack
with 13 points, two more than Christopher Nugent. Captain
Enrique Ugalde was the top scorer for Mexico with eight points,
two more than Alan Martinez.
The United States will take on hosts Canada in a North American
semifinal. Mexico will play Barbados for the fifth place, also
on Saturday.
John Hatch, captain of the United States: “I thought that was
our best overall team performance. We hadn’t been playing as
well as we could have as a team this week and we really brought
it together and definitely put our best volleyball out there
today. Hopefully we can just keep that forward and take it into
tomorrow.”
Dan Friend, head coach of the United States: “I thought that was
our most complete match so far. They’ve been working hard on
improving in some areas and I thought in some of the other
matches - no matter who our opponent was - we’ve been kind of up
and down. In terms of our pass and our serve and our offense and
blocking, I thought it was the most complete game which is a
good sign as we go into the semifinals against a really good
Canadian team.”
Enrique Ugalde, captain of Mexico: “We have noticed the huge
progress of the US in this age-group after the U19 category. We
have not developed at the same pace. We have not had many top
international competitive opportunities like this one. Today, we
had more serve errors in the third set, but overall it was a
difficult match. We have to win our match against Barbados
tomorrow if we want to achieve something in international
volleyball.”
Victor Porras, head coach of Mexico: “We are aware of the USA’s
capacity and their level. We are yet to control the ball and
compete at this level. Some mistakes lead to others, especially
our serve. We came here to produce a decent performance. Our
players know their mission here. We have guys playing their
first international tournament. We now need to prepare for our
next game. We will come out with the same winning mentality and
aware of our rivals’ capacity. The team who makes lesser
mistakes will be the winner.” |
