Volleyball update - Gold and silverware winners NORCECA Men’s Junior Continental
The first major volleyball championship in Gatineau, Quebec Canada recently determined the newest continental champions and offered valuable world ranking points to the winning teams. NORCECA Junior Continental Men’s Championship ended on 21st August 2010 and defined the gold and silver medallist teams.
Teams from United States and Canada came face-to-face in the final match of the championship. In the last season, Canada finished in the second-place as it was pushed behind by stronger Cuban side. The team repeated the tradition of making its way to the finals but couldn’t succeed for another year.
The final victory at Junior Volleyball 2010 was claimed by the U.S. team. The U.S team posted straight three-set (25-14, 25-19, and 25-16) victory over Canada and locked the gold medal. The U.S team opened the first set and acted according to a set plan given by the head-coach.
They had played matches with world’s finest teams but the final match with Canada was more important and there was hardly any chance to stand a mistake. Canada was playing the matches on its home courts and in front of thousands of local supports. The conditions favoured the home team and up till the final stage, the team had 4-0 record in the game. The U.S team was aware of the potential risk and level of their rivals in the final match.
The American players came-up with a strong action and took an early lead of 8-2 at the end of first technical timeout (TTO). The fast-paced spikes cruised through Canadian players and extended USA’s lead to 10-3. At the end of second technical timeout, U.S. declared 8 points’ lead. The points’ clock was moved 17-9 when Canada changed their strategy and hit two points with the help of an ace and a kill. The American Maurice Torres and Taylor Sander resisted the Canadian score and reacted promptly.
Canada scored a couple of more points on account of U.S. hitting error but Sander ended the run with an attack. The set point was reached when Sander killed Mochalski’s hit and U.S. won the first set.
The second set started with hard-hitting. Canada was upset with the loss of first set but they couldn’t control the game in second set either. The U.S. team was able to earn the starting 4 points while Canada stood on 0. Afterwards, Canada hit back with straight three points including two kills but they were behind U.S (5-8) at the end of first TTO. The American Torres kept on producing excellent aces and Sander got a kill to maintain the lead.
Canadian Olmstead attacked the U.S. defence line and scored points for Canada. The game was tied at 10-10 and also at 11-11. The tiring set continued and U.S. was able to break the tie. The score took jumps of 21-13, 21-17 and a set point of 21-18 with U.S team retaining the lead. Ultimately, Canada’s serving error benefitted U.S. and they won the second set (25-19).
In the third set, U.S. had advantage of two set wins and attacked Canada with powerful spikes and under-hand shots. The first TTO declared 8-6 points’ lead of U.S. The set was mainly dominated by USA and they paved their way to the final victory by posting 25-16 in third set.
Maurice Torres who scored 14 points for the U.S. team called their victory a collective effort. He was delighted to say that unity is their power and all twelve players did justice to their roles in the game.
Quite similarly, the head coach John Hawks was proud of his team. He attributed them as a fun-group of guys.
On the other hand Canadian Coach regretted about their embarrassing defeat but he said that the defeat has made them hungrier for the next Junior World Championship.
Tags: