Americans head for semi-finals of XVI Pan American Games - Volleyball news
The US squad was able to make it to the semi-finals of the women’s volleyball tournament of the XVI Pan American Games on the Monday, October 17, after the number two world ranked American team beat the home team of Mexico in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Despite the fact that the Americans were playing in hostile territory, they were able to hand out a defeat to the Mexicans by making a clean sweep. The first two sets of the match were completely dominated by the US with the Mexicans making no head way.
However, the Mexicans put up a valiant effort in the third set that brought the crowd to its feet during the long hard battle. Unfortunately for the Mexicans, the Americans prevailed in bagging a win and sealing the deal on the match at the following final
set scores: 25-14, 25-16 and 31-29.
The coach of the American side, Andy Banachowski, made the following comments at the press conference after the match had reached its close: “Mexico played a great third set and that gave the public a chance to enjoy the competition. I was disappointed that
one of the Mexico players was injured and could not play today, but their coach was able to switch his players.”
On the other hand, the coach of the Mexican team Mario Herrera expressed himself in the following manner: “USA is a great team with quality. It was a shame we could not close that set. USA made the right adjustments and our opportunity went away. We can
still follow playing on the next round looking for fifth, sixth or seventh. To be in this kind of competition is a learning experience.”
The Americans were able to dominate the hosts in almost all aspects of the game. Both the attack and the defence of the Americans worked in sync to put the pressure on the Mexicans. Particularly, the blocking of the Americans was better than the Mexicans
as they U.S. tallied a total of 13 blocks. Lauren Gibbemeyer was able to contribute five blocks whereas Jessica Jones made three of them.
The player that was able to tally the most points from both teams in the entire match was Alexandra Klineman of the US. Klineman made her presence felt by adding 14 points for her team. Klineman was helped by Cynthia Barboza and Regan Hood each of whom were
able to keep the pressure on the Mexicans by putting up 10 points respectively. The player that was most active on the Mexican side was Samantha Bricio who contributed by putting up a total of 8 points.
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