PONCE, Puerto Rico, May 16, 2024. – Canada advanced to quarterfinals after a 3-1 victory (25-13, 22-25, 25-7, 28-26) over Suriname at the Boys U19 NORCECA Continental Championship in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Canada secured third place in pool B with a 1-2 win-loss record and will compete for a spot in the semifinals on Saturday against the team finishing second in pool A. Suriname concludes the pool-play with 0-3 record and will play classification matches for positions 5 to 8.
After a strong first set victory for Canada, Suriname surprised the northern team evening the scores with solid blocking and offensive attacks at the net. Canada returned mentally and physically stronger to win the third set by a huge margin (25-7). Canada survived a dramatic fourth set after Suriname overcame a seven-point deficit (16-23) and then lost a set point.
Canada led in kills 58-25, in blocks with a slim 8-7 margin, and had a comfortable 9-5 advantage in service points. Canada gave away 34 points on errors against 24 from Suriname.
Canadian team captain Reuben Veith led all scorers with 15 points on 13 kills, one block, and one ace. Opposite hitter Luke Wright added 14 points on 9 kills, 2 blocks, and a match-high of 3 ace points. Outside hitter Kai Miles contributed 10 points.
Suriname’s top scorer was Gianni Ritfeld with 11 points.
Luke Wright, outside hitter of Canada: “Our energy was shifting a lot during the match and in the third set it kind of locked in and did our best. Now in the next our talking, defense-service and blocking-defense need to improve mostly”.
Roberto Benschop, libero of Suriname: “We had ups and downs. I told my team that if Canada went on a service run, we were going to lose because it was going to be very hard to comeback from 4 or 5 points. We played point for point in the second and fourth set, receive-pass-attack. We were pretty close in the fourth set because of our fighting spirt; we did a very good job against a highly competitive team like Canada”.
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