Puerto Rico blanks host Canadians in Pan Am Cup volleyball
Canada sits 1-1 ahead of final day of round-robin play
Puerto Rico surprised the host Canadians to capture its first win on Wednesday at the Pan American Cup in Gatineau, Que.
The islanders blanked Canada for a 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-22) victory to keep their hopes of reaching the podium for the first time since 2010 alive.
"We didn't play well and they were better than us in every aspect of the game," said Canadian coach Larry McKay.
"The score is pretty indicative of the better team tonight."
The play started evenly in the first set but Maurice Torres' hard hitting helped secure a 25-21 win and the Puerto Ricans kept the momentum in their favour into the second set to triumph 25-16.
Torres increased the gap from the service line to put Puerto Rico up 21-14 in the final set but the Canadians clawed back to within a point. The Caribbean squad managed to hold off Canada's late push to claim a 25-22 win.
Torres led Puerto Rico with 14 points, while Danny Demyanenko was Canada's top contributor with six.
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CANvsPUR?src=hash">#CANvsPUR</a> 0-3 ... Match point <a href="https://twitter.com/PRVoleibol">@PRVoleibol</a> Looking ahead: Tomorrow the home team faces a strong Argentine side at the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PanAmCup2017?src=hash">#PanAmCup2017</a> <a href="https://t.co/HGRZ4Gfgn1">pic.twitter.com/HGRZ4Gfgn1</a>
—@VBallCanada"We didn't play well and they were better than us in every aspect of the game," Canadian coach Larry McKay said. "The score is pretty indicative of the better team tonight."
Canada opened with a 3-1 win over Venezuela on Tuesday.
The result leaves Argentina alone on top of Group B with two wins. Puerto Rico plays Venezuela and Canada meets Argentina on Thursday on the final day of the preliminary round at 8 p.m. ET live on CBCSports.ca.
With files from The Canadian Press