Canada's men's volleyball team goes for gold at Continental Championship
Canada's men's volleyball team won its semifinal match over Mexico on Friday night and will next play Cuba in the final on Saturday at the NORCECA Continental Championship in Cordoba, Mexico.
After trailing 2-1, Canada rallied for a 3-2 victory (20-25, 25-16,18-25, 25-17,15-7)
Mexico dominated the first and third sets, but Canada re-grouped to force a tie-breaking fifth set.
"For us, I'm happy with the win, but it was a very difficult match," said Canada's coach Glenn Hoag.
"Mexico played very well and put us under pressure with good serving, especially early in the game and played very good defense – and were better in certain sets offensively as well.'
Gord Perrin led Canada with 21 points, while Nicholas Hoag contributed 19, and Daniel Jansen Vandoorn added 14.
Mexico's, Jorge Barajas had 13 points, while Nestor Orellana and Gonzalo Ruiz each finished with 12.
Canada outplayed Mexico in blocking (15-4), but Mexico closed with a slight advantage in aces (5-4).
"Mexico showed they can play at a really good level," said Canada's captain Fred Winters. "I don't want to say they surprised us because we know the type of volleyball they play — very scrappy and good on defense and they don't give up.
"I really don't think our offense was the problem, just some unforced errors, and really in the first three sets Mexico played great volleyball, also in attack, which we might not have expected."
In the other semifinal on Friday, Cuba defeated Puerto Rico 3-1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-23 and 25-22).
The gold-medal match between Canada and Cuba is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET.
The top four teams at this tournament have already earned their ticket to an Olympic qualifier, tentatively scheduled for January 2016.
Canada recently returned from the World Cup in Japan, where the top two teams (U.S. and Italy) earned Olympic berths.
