MONCTON, Canada, September 12, 2026: Mexico is now 2-0 after beating Curaçao 3-0 (25-12, 25-22, 25-18) at the NORCECA Men’s Championship today at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.
After Mexico made quick work of the first set, Curaçao was able to put pressure on Mexico in the second taking an early lead, but Mexico evened it up at 14 and was able to successfully close the set.
Overall, attack points were even at 34, but Mexico made the difference in blocks (10-3) and aces (6-2). Points from errors also went in Mexico’s direction – 25-13.
Diego González Castañeda of Mexico led all scoring with 14 points (10 kills, 2 blocks and 2 aces). Timothy van Henneigen of Curaçao led his team with 13 points.
Head coach of Mexico, Carlos Schwanke: “I’m really, really pleased. Tomorrow will be a big match against Canada, so we’ll concentrate on that and analyze all that we need to do. This wasn’t an easy match, but we made some changes in the second set and had a good recovery for the win.”
Player #12 of Mexico, Mauro Fuentes Rascón: “It’s our second win of the tournament and we’re happy for that. I think we did a great job, mainly from the service line; it’s something that we have struggled with in previous tournaments. We put some pressure on them with that element of the game. In the second set, we struggled a bit on attack, but fortunately we found a way through that and we won the match.
“We play Canada tomorrow and that’s the toughest opponent in our group. We will do our best… The mindset that we have is that we had to win our games against Puerto Rico and Curacao, and we have to do our best against Canada. Every match is important for world rankings. In order to qualify for the World Championship, we have to have a great tournament.”
Eight teams are in Moncton, Canada, for the 2026 NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship, where three berths to the 2027 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup in Poland will be at stake. The tournament will also determine the teams that advance to NORCECA’s final qualification stage (Sept. 18 and 19) for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
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