Canada advance to gold medal match, qualify to WCH

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, August 2, 2014 – Canada advanced to the gold medal match of the NORCECA U21 Continental Championship following a well fought five-set victory (23-25, 25-14, 20-25, 25-22, 15-9) over United States on Saturday.

The victory earned Canada a spot in next year’s FIVB U21 World Championship to take place in Mexico.

Canada’s Brandon Koopers led the scorers of his side with 20 points while Lucas Coleman added 14 points. Sander Brenden scored a match-high 21 points for United States and Storm Faagata-Tufuga had 13.

The Americans led in kills 56-47 but gave away 41 points via unforced errors to 31 by the Canadians. The winners held a wide advantage in blocks 15-6 and had a slight 5-2 margin in aces.

Team Canada will play for the gold medal at 7 p.m. on Sunday. United States will play for the bronze medal at 5:00 p.m. Only the top two teams qualify the World Championship.

Quotes

Ryan Nickifor, Canada’s Captain: “I feel very excited because we will go to the Worlds next year. We always have had a big rivalry with the United States and that was an extra motivation.”

John Barrett, Canada’s Coach: “We had a great match. I trust my players and all them had the chance to play. United States was a great opponent that fought until the end. The players believed in themselves and in our team, now we want to be champions.”

Soren Kindem, United States’ Captain. “In the court we had two good teams and we lost this time. It was a great game. We played well against one of the best teams we have faced.”

Daniel Friend, United States’ Coach: “Canada played well today. We did everything we could. We got here playing the same way, using all the players and that's part of our job, find out who is in his prime. This was the only way to going to the Worlds and we failed.”