Canada claims bronze in Men’s Continental NORCECA Championship - Volleyball
The bronze medal match at the Men’s Continental NORCECA Championship took place on September 3rd in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. The two teams that were competing for the third place in the tournament were Canada and the Puerto Rican home team. The
resulting clash between the two sides lasted for three sets at the end of which the Canadians were celebrating their well deserved victory over the Puerto Ricans.
The first set of the match started off evenly with both teams trading the lead until the final stages of the set when the Canadians were able to pull away and secure the opening set. The loss of the first set in their own home ground did not sit well with
the Puerto Ricans and they responded by stepping up their game and providing the Canadians with quite a challenge. Unfortunately for the Puerto Ricans, Canada pulled off another win. A two set deficit got the spirits of the Puerto Ricans down and enabled the
Canadians to secure an easy win and seal the deal on the match at the following final set scores: 25-20, 25-23 and 25-14.
The coach of the Canadian team, Glenn Hoag, made the following comments at the press conference that was conducted after the match had reached its close: “My worry was that the team wouldn’t carry on because of last night, but they got into the match; the
whole summer has been positive for us, but we must work twice as much as we’re not traditionally a volleyball country.”
On the other hand, the Puerto Rican assistant coach, Ramon Hernandez, shared his sentiments in the following manner after his team had lost the match: “This is the fourth time Canada has beat us in less than two weeks because we haven’t been able to play
well all summer long and in the end Canada was better, we must work harder.”
The opening set of the match started off with both teams going in for the kill. As a result, no one was able to emerge with a significant lead for a long time. It was only in the later stages that the Canadians put on a spurt of speed that led them to a
25-20 win.
The Puerto Ricans gave the Canadians tough competition in the second set and what followed was a thrilling fight that unfortunately for the home team did not end in their favour as the Canadians bagged another win at 25-23.
A two set deficit slackened the Puerto Ricans and Canada took advantage of the fact by making a quick job of the third set at 25-14.
The lead scorer in the match was the Canadian player, Gavin Schmitt, with 21 points while the Puerto Rican player, Victor Rivera, was able to lead the Puerto Ricans with 11 points.
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