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GUADALAJARA, Mexico, April 10,
2010 – The United States dominated Mexico in
consecutive sets 25-21, 25-20 and 25-12, and
will face Cuba once again tomorrow for the gold
at the NORCECA Continental Boys Youth
Tournament.
With this victory, the United
States secured a ticket to the 2011 World
Championship in this discipline and will compete
against Cuba at this Sunday’s final for the
single pass to the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic
Games. Cuba defeated Puerto Rico today 3-0
(25-21, 25-16 and 25-12).
The visiting team, with the
highest average size along with Cuba (1.95m),
got in the action with a fast game that moved
along the middle and from the sides, finely
complemented by good serve and attack.
The Cuban team had previously
defeated the northern representation in the
group A preliminary round 3-0 (25-14, 25-17 and
25-11).
Aaron Russell was the highest
scorer in today’s semifinal, contributing 17
points and Matthew Tarantino was the other
player who scored double digits (11 points). On
the local side, Cristian Limon contributed 7
points.
Gary Sato, Technical Director for
the United States, recognized that “it was a
difficult and exciting match, as we had expected
it to be but the players adapted well to our
plan and achieved our goal.”
Corner player Matthew Tarantino
expressed that the game was fun although “we
knew that we had to play hard and well to fight
for the win.”
His teammate, Team Captain Micah
Christenson, explained “we really took advantage
of the energy that the Mexican fans brought to
the stadium. We borrowed from that excitement
and energy and we won because our coaches
prepared us very well.”
On his part, Justo Arias,
Technical Director for the local team, seemed
pleased with the result “however, we knew that
it would be a complicated match and we couldn’t
break through the American blockage and with our
defense, we couldn’t really organize a good
counterattack.”
Jonathan Ponce, Mexican Team
Captain, lamented that despite putting their
best effort “things didn’t work out and we
should’ve been better prepared.”
In the final game, Cuba will
contend with the United States at 5PM. For the
bronze, Mexican and Puerto Rico will face off at
3PM. At 1pm, the Dominican Republic and
Guatemala will dispute the fifth place.
Today, Canada defeated Costa Rica
thus securing the seventh place. Inexperienced,
yet competitive Curacao placed last in the
tournament.
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