Canada advances after Chilean challenge at the U21 Pan Am Cup

FORT MCMURRAY, Canada, May 19, 2017 - Canada advances to the semifinals of the U21 Pan American Cup (May 16 to 21), held at the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Centre at Keyano College in Fort McMurray.

Although Canada got off strong start, the team faltered in the third set, but managed a win after re-grouping. The final score was 3-1 (25-15, 25-18, 22-25, 25-10).

Said Canada’s coach Gino Brousseau: “We had a good start, but for some unknown reason, we just fell apart (in the third set). We didn’t respect the opponent – in my mind we thought that after two sets the game was over. We poked the bear and after that, we were in trouble and all the pressure was on us. We were afraid to make mistakes, but I made some subs and we came back strong.”

Eric Loeppky of Steinbach, MB. and Sharone Vernon-Evans of Scarborough, Ont. both had 19 points for Canada.

Chilean opposite Vicente Mardones had 13 kills for his team.

“We played way better in the first three sets than we never did during the whole tournament so far,” explained Daniel Nejamkin, the coach of Chile. “We played pretty well; it was actually our best game. Tomorrow, we will face Puerto Rico and I hope we would be able to play at the same level than today to end this Pan Am Cup on a good impression. We didn’t started the tournament pretty well so my goal is now to finish playing well.”

Canada now faces one of the tournament’s stronger teams, Cuba, in the semifinals tomorrow.