United States crushes Trinidad & Tobago in opening game

MAYAGÜEZ, Puerto Rico, August 29, 2011. - United States opened the Men’s NORCECA Continental 2011 Championship with a 3-0 victory crushing Trinidad & Tobago (25-15, 25- 7, 25-12) at “Palacio de los Deportes” of Mayagüez.

Trinidad & Tobago didn’t give much resistance, even though during the first set things seemed to be working out, but the Americans easily took control of the match and earned their first win of the tournament in Pool B.

USA’s captain, Clayton Stanley, suffered an injury in the first set, which forced him to leave the court and was not able to return.

With 12 points each, Evan Patak and David Lee were the best scorers for the United States; Patak scored 6 of them from serves and for Trinidad & Tobago, team captain Nolan Tash had 9 points.

For the wining team and filling in for Clay Stanley, Kevin Hansen said “first of all, I feel disappointed for Clay’s injury, I wish he can make it back; we didn’t know what to expect of Trinidad, they played very well at the beginning. Our serving was more disciplined and we hope to continue to improve in all areas.”

Nolan Tash indicated “we have never faced the United States in the 15 years that I have been playing; we tried our best and could show it in the first set, but United State has better caliber players, but we are still optimistic and hope to be a surprise.”

“I believe we played fairly balanced, we knew very little of Trinidad and they did a wonderful job in the first set that put some pressure to my team that instantly made us take care of details, which is our system: think about every point, every set and every match” said United State’s coach, Knipe Alan.”

Gideon Dickson coach of Trinidad & Tobago expressed “first congratulations to the United States, we were definitely beaten by a superior team and I hope that my boys will respond better in the next matches.”