USA wins Group A at U21 Men's Championship 

GATINEAU, Canada, July 7, 2016 – A focused Team USA sailed through a straight-sets 3-0 (25-11, 25-12, 25-10) victory against Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at the U21 NORCECA Men's Continental Championship on Thursday.

The win sends Team USA (2-0) directly to the second semifinal at 8 p.m. on Saturday at Centre Sportif de Gatineau. Jack Cole had a match-high 10 points (including six kills on seven attacks, plus four aces), while Reese Devilbiss added nine and Jordan Ewert chipped in seven. Marcus Thomas, with five points, was the top shot for Saint Vincent (0-2).

Team USA ran off 10 points in a row to close out the first set. The most impressive sequence involved middle blocker George Huhmann laying out for a dig to sustain a rally that he finished with a kill.

“If you hustle after balls, you are going to inspire your teammates to do the same thing and help you do better overall,” said the six-foot-nine Huhmann. “We know the next game is going to be pretty tough, so if we have the mindset of working hard every day, I think that will help us do better.”

Dylan Missry also had an efficient effort, going 6-for-6 on attacks.

“The focus for us today was about our side of the net and we wanted to control what we could control,” USA coach Jay Hosack said. “I thought our guys did a good job of that. [Saint Vincent] is obviously a team that is getting better and better every year and they have some work to do, but we thought we'd just focus on that.”

Saint Vincent, which was playing USA for the first time at the U21 level, will be in the quarterfinal on Friday against either Canada or Cuba.

“I'm very proud of my guys, for how we fought,” Saint Vincent captain Delshun Welcome said. “It was our first time playing USA. They're very strong, they have top players and very good experience.”

The benefit of being in the three-team pool is that Saint Vincent will have exposure to another higher-strata opponent in the quarter-final, along with playing in the classification games.

“We have come here for the experience,” Saint Vincent coach Vance Andrews said. “Today was a fun time. It was exciting for them to play against USA, they are the top-ranked team.”

Barbados (1-1), as Group A's second-place finisher, will face the Guatemala-Trinidad and Tobago winner Friday's 8 p.m. quarter-final. Their match will determined third place in Group B.