USA to play for gold at U21 Pan Am Cup

Calgary, Aug. 09, 2025:  The United States defeated Puerto Rico and will play for the title of the 2025 NORCECA U21 Men’s Pan American Cup at the 7 Chiefs Sportsplex & Chief Jim Starlight Centre near Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

It was a 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-18) sweep.

USA led in attack points (38-26), blocks (7-3), and aces (5-4). USA also earned more points from errors (25-22).

Riggs Guy (9 kills and 2 aces) and Marek Turner (10 kills and a block) led USA’s scoring with 11 points each.

Puerto Rico’s Eliel David Salva also contributed 11 points to the losing team’s effort.

Captain of Team USA, Sebastiano Sani, said: “Today we were really dialed in on everything – receives, serves, blocks. We already knew we made it to the final match, but that didn’t matter to us. We wanted to end pool play with 5-0 and managed to do it. Now we are going to prepare for tomorrow.

“Our team is relatively new as we only had a week of training before this tournament and every day we are learning about each other and learning how to play together. It’s getting better every day.”

John Hawks, head coach of Team USA, commented: “I thought we performed well in sets one and three, but in set two we gave up too many point runs. So just getting to that level of consistency is important. Seeing our guys compete and watching them play together is fun. I’m excited for the guys. We can still get a lot better, which is good to know. We are looking forward to the match tomorrow.”