USA will face Chile for seventh place at Pan Am Cup

CORDOBA, Mexico, August 31, 2018.- United States swept Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 28-26) and will face Chile for the seventh place of the Men’s Pan American Cup at the Arena Cordoba in Cordoba, Mexico.

Setter James Shaw was loud all over the net, carrying United States with a match-high of 23 points on 17 kills and 6 blocks.

The US struggled in sets one and three but walked away with a victory on 41-35 margin in kills, 11-4 blocking advantage and 4-1 in aces. The winners committed more unforced errors (26-22).

Opposite player Jose Caceres came off the bench in the second set scoring 10 points as Dominican Republic’s top attacker.

United States will meet Chile who early defeated Colombia for the seventh place of the event on Saturday.

After the US dramatic finishing, James Shaw said “Dominican Republic made it really difficult on us in many situations. On the other hand, it’s difficult to play for seventh place but we really fought hard and competed well. We served very well keeping the pressure on them from the defense side of the ball”.

David Hunt head coach of United States expressed “we were expecting them to play well, they put up a really good fight; we responded by blocking pretty well, serving strong and touching the ball from everywhere making it tougher for them to score”.

Alexander Gutiérrez head coach for Dominican Republic indicated they are on the right track “we had a great performance against a very tall opponent. We are renovating the men’s team, some players are about to retire and others weren’t able to be here with other international events on our schedule. Despite the loss, the scores were positive”.