Canada overpowers Mexico in front of home crowd

WINNIPEG, Canada, September 3, 2019 - Canada dominated Mexico 3-0 (25-10, 25-17, 25-15) in the host team’s opener today at the Men’s 2019 NORCECA Continental Championships today in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Canada came out swinging from the first set in front of a pleased home crowd, and maintained a high level of play throughout the match.

Ryan Sclater topped all scorers with 16 points, followed by Stephen Maar with 13 and team captain Gord Perrin with 11.

Opposite Daniel Vargas contributed eight points to the Mexican effort.  Mexico is now 1-1 in the tournament.

This was Canada’s first match of the tournament, as Suriname was a late withdrawal from the event and therefore this pool.  Canada plays Puerto Rico tomorrow at 8 pm local time.

Canada’s head coach Glenn Hoag: “It was a high quality of ball that we played today; very focused.  We know Mexico is a feisty team and very skilled – they can pass well.  Our guys were patient and we played really good block defense, so we are happy.  We have a couple of objectives: We want to win this tournament and qualify for the next tournament (zonal Olympic Qualifier), so we’ll keep our focus on that.”

Mexico head coach, Jorge Miguel Azair Lopez: “Canada played a very strong game with very few mistakes. They forced a lot of errors on our side.  The goal of the tournament is still to qualify to the Olympic qualifying tournament. We have learned a big lesson from this match, and now we need to move on and focus on the goal of qualifying.”