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HAVANA, Cuba, October 8, 2022.- United States
sealed their undefeated performance sweeping
Mexico 25-19, 30-28 and 25-14 winning the Men’s
U21 Pan American held at Ciudad Deportiva
Coliseum.
The Americans didn’t give their rivals a chance
with a steady performance, showing superiority
win attacks (37-24), blocks (11-5) and serves
(8-4), with five more errors (27-22) in one hour
and 22-minute contest, between both teams that
take home the two berths for the 2023 World
Championship.
The only players scoring double digits were
precisely from the champions, led by opposite
Shane Wetzel, who scored 13. Outside hitter
Zachary Rama added 12 and 10 by middle blocker
Nyerovwome Omene.
Andy Read, United States veteran coach said “the
second set was very hard, we were down and were
able to recover, but the Mexicans were strong. I
am happy and very proud of my team, that these
12 boys are pride of our country and represented
it in this event and because it gives them the
chance to play the 2023 World Championship”.
Libero Christopher Connelly expressed “it was a
great match, we had a lot of fun, we gave all
our energy and effort to win the gold medal; the
event was incredible, very good, I liked the
crowd, they gave all the energy that the
tournament needed, and they inspired Mexico and
Cuba”.
Mexican coach Jorge Alberto Romero explained
“their performance was outstanding the entire
tournament, we were expecting them to go one on
one against United States, Canada or maybe Cuba,
who I would’ve like to play against. The U.S.
serves affected us, the reception wasn’t
adequate, every effort was made. We must work in
the psychological part and reception”.
Isai Castañeda, Mexican libero, said “we
qualified to worlds, but our goal was set on
winning the tournament and we have that bad
feeling because we didn’t strive as much as we
could have. We began lazy and we were like that
the entire match, we tried to put pressure only
during the second set, but we didn’t do our job
well and in the third we committed too many
errors, United States grew, they had more
character than us and everything flowed more for
them”. |
