Tag: 2025 NORCECA XVIII Men Senior Pan American Cup

LEÓN, Guanajuato, August 26, 2025.- Chile opened the Senior Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup with a 3-1 victory (25-19, 23-25, 25-17, 25-23) over the Dominican Republic in the first match of Pool C, held at the Domo de la Feria in León, Guanajuato.

The Chilean team showed a strong start, taking an early 11-5 lead with attacks from different positions and forcing Dominican errors, closing the first set with an ace by Vicente Valenzuela.

The Dominican Republic reacted in the second set with a tighter game and longer rallies. With blocks from Rafael Burgos and Héctor Cruz, the Caribbean side took a 17-12 advantage. Chile responded through captain Dusan Bonacic and contributions from Vicente Parraguirre and Valenzuela, but Cruz led the Dominican offense and a kill by Luis Reinoso sealed the set to even the match 1-1.

The third set was even in the early stages until Chile pulled ahead 15-11 with a block by Tomás Gago, effective attacks from Bonacic, and Dominican errors. From there, the South Americans extended their lead to take control of the match.

In the fourth set, Chile led by as many as six points, but the Dominican Republic staged a dramatic comeback, saving a match point with a block by Burgos against Bonacic (22-24). In the end, Vicente Parraguirre scored the decisive point to secure the Chilean victory.

Statistics favored Chile in attacks (55-53) and service (3-1), while the Dominican Republic led in blocking (8-7). Chile also benefited from 33 Dominican errors, committing 23 of their own.

Vicente Parraguirre topped Chile’s scoring with 19 points, followed by captain Dusan Bonacic with 15 and Vicente Valenzuela with 14. For the Caribbean team, captain Héctor Cruz was the leading scorer of the match with 29 points, supported by Ronny Molina with 16.

In their next Pool C matches, Chile will face Suriname, while the Dominican Republic will meet Mexico.

Chilean captain Dusan Bonacic said after the win: “I’m happy to start the Pan American Cup with a very important victory for us because the Dominican Republic has always been a tough opponent. I’m satisfied with our team’s performance because this victory opens up the championship a bit for us. It was a close finish, with some differences of opinion, but with humility and respect we fought every point.”

Dominican captain Héctor Cruz said: “It was an exciting finish, but we lost focus on blocking. We will keep working hard; this was only the first match, and we still have opportunities.”

LEÓN, Guanajuato, August 26, 2025. – Colombia made a victorious debut in the opening match of the Senior Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup, sweeping Guatemala in straight sets 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-23) at the Domo de la Feria in León, Guanajuato.

Colombia’s next opponent in Pool B will be Puerto Rico, while Guatemala will face Canada.

The match began evenly, with Guatemala taking a slight 9-6 lead behind Gerardo González’s serving. Colombia quickly responded, tying the score at 10 with a block from Daniel Aponza. From point 12 onward, the South Americans never gave up the lead and closed the set with a block by Leandro Mejía against Carlos López.

The second set had the same intensity. Guatemala went up 12-10 with a block by Jason Hernández and a powerful attack from captain Carlos López. However, the offensive push of Andrés Piza and Miguel Ángel Martínez turned the score in Colombia’s favor (19-16), and once again the South Americans sealed the set with the strength of their blocking.

The third remained tight until 16-16. Colombia pulled ahead thanks to opponent errors, but Guatemala forced a tie at 23 with an attack from Andy Leonardo. Two consecutive mistakes by the Central Americans gave Colombia the victory.

Colombia’s blocking (10-3) proved decisive, along with their slight edge in attacking (38-33). Guatemala dominated from the service line (4-3), while errors were similar (21 by Colombia and 24 by Guatemala).

Opposites Miguel Ángel Martínez (COL) and Andy Leonardo Blanco (GUA) led all scorers with 12 points each. For Colombia, Juan Castañeda also stood out with 11 points, while middle blocker Leandro Mejía added 10. On the Guatemalan side, in addition to Leonardo, captain Carlos López contributed 10 points.

After the match, Colombia’s captain Leandro Mejía said: “It’s the first match and we’re just getting into rhythm. We did a good job staying focused and following the coach’s instructions. We’ve been training in cold weather, and now we need to adapt to the heat, but we did everything great.”

Meanwhile, Guatemala’s captain Carlos López admitted: “We always started strong in all three sets, but Colombia controlled the second half better. Our mistakes cost us the match; we need to work on that.”

LEÓN, Guanajuato, August 25, 2025.– The Senior Men’s Pan American Volleyball Cup awards important ranking points for qualification to the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games.

The competition, to be held from August 26 to 31 at the Domo de la Feria, features twelve teams aiming to collect as many points as possible to boost their chances of qualifying for Santo Domingo 2026. The qualification system will be completed next year.

Augusto Sabbatini, Head Coach of Antigua and Barbuda: “The team has been training for sixty days. We’re bringing up a young team with a mix of experienced players. We are looking to improve for our next competition, the ECVA Final Four, which will be held in Antigua. This tournament is very important for us to showcase what we’ve been training in order to strengthen the team.”

David Preston, Head Coach of Canada: “We’ve had a very good training block. We have nine new members of our team that have limited international experience, so like most teams in their first year of their quad, we’ve made some good transitions. We do have some guys with some experience, so it could be a little bit different. Our senior team is preparing for the World Championship, so it’s been two agendas as we’ve been getting the guys ready. We are looking forward to seeing our young guys and how they handle this international event, so there’s a lot of excitement”.

Daniel Nejamkin, Head Coach of Chile: “We have never experienced a Pan American Cup with twelve teams, so we are very happy to be able to compete with everyone. We are glad to see so many teams from South America and NORCECA.”

Paolo Montagnani, Head Coach of Colombia: “We didn’t have a long preparation because I had to make a preselection and know all the players from Colombia, it’s my first year in Colombia. We did our best, unfortunately we had no friendly matches nor international events. I think we will be competitive and ready, we expect to have fun”.

Alexander Gutiérrez, Head Coach of Dominican Republic: “We will try to put on a good show because we are coming with practically a ‘B’ team due to multiple international commitments. Four players competed in Asunción, in Mexico for the Final Four, and in Guatemala for the U23 Pan American Cup, in addition to senior players who are just coming in and will have the opportunity to test themselves ahead of the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games. This tournament is for testing and preparing ourselves for the Final Six, where we will have our full roster. We will give the responsibility to the players so they can embrace their role in the national team project.”

Reider Lucas, Head Coach of Guatemala: “This is a high-quality event with a good level of competition, and we are very happy to be here. We came with the objective of earning the ranking points necessary to qualify for the 2026 Central American Games. We will aim to compete well and show a good image.”

Carlos Eduardo Schwanke, Head Coach of Mexico:  “This competition will bring us a lot of strength because we will be playing in front of our home crowd, and we will rely heavily on them to play in our favor. We had a good week of preparation matches. We are focused on this tournament. By playing match by match, we will be able to improve and achieve a good position for Mexico.”

Jamille Torres, Head Coach of Puerto Rico: “We are highly motivated after winning the Final Four here in Mexico; it was a goal achieved because last year we won in Puerto Rico and now here. Last year in the Men’s Pan American Cup we won the bronze medal, and the goal is to improve or at least repeat last year’s performance.”

Keven Sporkslede, Team captain Suriname: “We just finished playing a CAZOVA tournament, which didn’t go as expected for us, but that’s volleyball, this time it was not our time to win.  We got to play some games to prepare for the Pan Am Cup which was very good”.

Andy Read, Head Coach of the United States: “The U.S. team is very excited to be here. We have prepared for several weeks, we had several guys that were training with VNL players during the summer and some others that just got in, and some players of our U23 team. We think we have a very strong team to compete in the most important tournament in our hemisphere this year. We are ready to play”.

Rubén Wolochin, Head Coach of Venezuela: “Our main goal is qualifying for the Central American and Caribbean Games. The second goal is to collect as many points as possible for the world ranking and to compete again after Venezuela’s five-year absence from international competitions. We will go step by step, seeing where we stand, and trying to put on the court what we’ve been able to train.”

Cuba is scheduled to arrive later at night.

LEÓN, Guanajuato, August 23, 2025. – Defending champions Canada will aim for a three-peat at the 18th edition of the Men’s Senior Pan American Volleyball Cup, set to take place from August 26 to 31 at the Domo de la Feria in León, Guanajuato.

Canada enters the tournament with back-to-back titles (2023, 2024) and stands as one of the top favorites among the twelve national teams competing in León. The United States and Puerto Rico completed the podium in the last edition held in the Dominican Republic.

Teams are divided into three pools, with the top two pool leaders advancing directly to the semifinals. The third-best first-place finisher from the group stage along with the second-place teams will contest the quarterfinals.

Pool A consists of Antigua & Barbuda, Cuba, the United States, and Venezuela. In Pool B, defending champions Canada are joined by Colombia, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico. Finally, Pool C includes Chile, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Suriname.

The United States has won the Pan American Cup five times, Cuba four, Brazil three, Argentina twice, and Mexico once.

The 2025 Men’s Pan American Cup is part of the qualification pathway for several major events: the 2026 Men’s Pan American Cup, the 2026 NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship, the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo, and the 2027 Pan American Games. In addition, the tournament awards points toward the FIVB World Ranking.

Schedule Preliminary Round

Ausgus 26

10:00    Colombia vs Guatemala

12:00    Chile vs Dominican Republic

14:00    United States vs Venezuela

16:00    Canada vs Puerto Rico  

18:00    Cuba vs Antigua and Barbuda

20:00    Mexico vs Suriname

August  27

10:00    United States vs Antigua and Barbuda

12:00    Chile vs Suriname

14:00    Canada vs Guatemala

16:00    Cuba vs Venezuela  

18:00    Colombia vs Puerto Rico

20:00    Mexico vs Dominican Republic

August 28

10:00    Venezuela vs Antigua and Barbuda

12:00    Dominican Republic vs Suriname

14:00    Puerto Rico vs Guatemala

16:00    Colombia vs Canada

18:00    United States vs Cuba

20:00    Mexico vs Chile

HISTORIC MEDALS MEN’S PAN AMERICAN CUP

YEAR	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE
2006	USA	DOM	CAN
2007	MEX	PUR	CUB
2008	USA	CAN	DOM
2009	USA	CAN	DOM
2010	USA	ARG	PUR
2011	BRA	USA	CAN
2012	USA	ARG	DOM
2013	BRA	MEX	ARG
2014	CUB	USA	ARG
2015	BRA	ARG	VEN
2016	CUB	ARG	CAN
2017	ARG	PUR	CUB
2018	ARG	BRA	CUB
2019	CUB	ARG	MEX
2022	CUB	CAN	USA
2023	CAN	BRA	CHI
2024	CAN	USA	PUR

 MEDAL COMPOSITION

COUNTRY	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
USA	5	3	1	9
CUB	4	0	3	7
BRA	3	1	0	4
ARG	2	5	2	9
CAN	2	3	3	8
MEX	1	1	1	3
PUR	0	2	2	4
DOM	0	1	3	4
VEN	0	0	1	1
CHI	0	0	1	1