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TORONTO, Canada, July 19, 2015 – Hosts Canada defeated Puerto
Rico 3-1 (25-23, 25-23, 21-25, 25-20) in the second day of the
men’s volleyball tournament at the Pan American Games on Sunday
at Exhibition Center of Toronto.
It was the second victory in as many matches for the home side
in Pool B of the competition after downing Mexico in day one.
Puerto Rico evened their win-loss mark at 1-1.
Gavin Schmitt’s 24 points, including three aces, topped the
scoring of Canada, while John Gordon Perrin contributed 15
points. Rudy Verhoeff, Nicholas Hoag and Graham Vigrass chipped
in with 9, 8 and 7 points, respectively.
Steven Morales finished with 20 points as the best Puerto Rican
offensive player, followed by Mannix Roman with 11 tallies.
Hector Soto added 9 points while Jackson Rivera and Enrique
Escalante concluded with 8 apiece.
Gavin Schmitt, player of Canada: “This is a good experience for
us playing together in front of our fans. We try to stay focused
but there are some nerves. We keep getting better and better as
we prepare for the World Cup in Japan, the first step to the
Olympics. Here we need to continue improving and kind of the
goal is to win the gold.”
Steve Morales, player of Puerto Rico: “We gave all we have on
the court. I think we faced a better team than the first day. We
have to keep working trying to improve and overcome those
moments when we lose the concentration. Today we failed on that,
and couldn’t close the sets.”
Glenn Hoag, Coach of Canada: “There was some kind of pressure.
When they won the third set we did some small adjustments, not a
lot what we did. We changed our serving a little bit. We needed
to be more disciplined. Puerto Rico was playing very good, so we
needed to be patient and we had to start defending. We did it
good in that aspect and hopefully we improved.”
Adam Simac, Player of Canada: “I thought we came out well. May
be at the end of the third set we had a lot of pressure, but our
defense is a big thing.”
Javier Gaspar, Coach of Puerto Rico: “For both teams this was a
tough match. We had problems to define when we have to finish.
That is something we struggle with. We don’t have a power player
like Gavin Schmitt, so we have to create a more solid advantage
at the end of each set. We
took three balls in fifteen attempts, so it is very difficult to
win doing that at this level.”
Hector Soto, Player of Puerto Rico: “It was a hard fought match.
We had an advantage but there were some situations that went out
of our control didn’t work out today. Canada showed little
advantage as host team. We missed a lot today. I’m happy with
the way we played, but not happy with the result.”
Edgardo Goas, Player of Puerto Rico: “That’s the way volleyball
is. We could not close the sets that we lost in the final
moments. They converted the key plays. Now we have to focus in
Mexico that is our next rival” |
