Canada secures bronze in the Pan Am Cup – Volleyball news
After having lost in the semi-finals against Brazil, the Canadian men’s volleyball team was in line for the bronze medal of the Pan Am Cup on Saturday. The team had just one hurdle in their way: Puerto Rico. In a match that took three back to back sets to
reach its close, the Canadian team was able to triumph over the Puerto Ricans by 25-14, 25-20 and 25-21.
It took some time for the young Puerto Rican squad to become accustomed to the home crowd of their rivals. As a result, the first set of the match was taken by the Canadians quite easily. The talented Puerto Rican team was able to bounce back in the second
set of the game but they could not clinch a win. The third set of the match was also close but Canada succeeded in making a match win.
Gavin Schmitt, the lead player in the Canadian line up, talked about his team’s performance and said, ''It's nice to finish with a win, especially that we are now headed into two weeks of training. It was probably our best-executed match of the tournament.
But it's early in the season and I've done this enough times to know it's a long process to get the chemistry back. We hadn't played together for eight months before this tournament.''
Both the attack as well as the defence of the Canadian team was well coordinated but there were some key players that played an integral part in the decisive win over the Puerto Ricans. Schmitt, Fred Winters, who is the team captain, and Gord Perrin all
chipped in to nudge their team past the finish line. Schmitt was able to score a total of 14 points while Winters contributed by posting 12 of his own. Perrin also made his presence felt by adding nine points to the Canadian score.
The Canadian team has been able to end the tournament with a total of four victories, two of which have come from defeating Puerto Rico. These wins have been bagged at the cost of incurring only one loss, which was suffered at the hands of the Brazilians.
Since the Pan Am Cups inaugural matches in 2006, Canada has consistently landed in the top rungs of the ladder but has never walked away as champions. In 2010, Canada got the fourth slot while in 2009, the host team was able to lay its hands on the silver
medal. 2008 saw the Canadian team take the bronze medal. This year was no different and the Canadians were once agains runner-ups despite the fact that Canada hosts the tournament every year.
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