COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 22, 2021) – The U.S. Men’s National Team will play for fifth place at the NORCECA Continental Championship after beating Guatemala on Sunday in a classification match, 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-19, 33-31).
The young U.S. team (3-2) of mostly college players will take on Dominican Republic (2-3) for the second time in the tournament in the fifth-place match on Monday at 1 p.m. PT. The U.S. Men beat the Dominican Republic 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-18, 26-24) in their pool play match on Aug. 19.
U.S. Head Coach Andy Read started an entirely new lineup against Guatemala. Sam Kobrine started at setter, Camden Gianni and Will Rottman at the outsides, Austin Wilmot and Merrick McHenry at middle, Jalen Penrose at opposite and Mason Briggs at libero.
OFFICIAL STATISTICS * TEAM STATISTICS
“We used a whole different team,” U.S. Head Coach Andy Read said. “We came with 14 players and one of our goals was to give everybody an extended play. There are so many young guys and they needed experience; they played great. I am so happy for our setter, Sam Kobrine, Camden Gianni, everybody was out there. They trained hard and I liked how they played.
The U.S. led Guatemala in kills (67-35), blocks (10-7) and aces (5-1), but gave up 54 points on unforced errors while Guatemala committed 24. The U.S. hitting efficiency behind Kobrine was .437. Guatemala hit .280.
Camden Gianni led all scorers against Guatemala with 27 points on a match-high 25 kills (.545 hitting efficiency), one block and one ace.
“We were super confident of what we were putting out there on the court and I think some of the guys trusted their serve a little bit too much tonight and that’s why missed son many, including me,” Gianni said. “We did a good job in serve-receive and putting pressure on them in defense and coming out with the win.”
Among other U.S. scorers, Penrose scored 14 points on 11 kills, two aces and one block. McHenry scored 13 points on nine kills (.692) and a match-high four blocks. Rottman and Wilmot each scored 10 points on nine kills and one block.
Kobrine scored four points on two blocks and two aces and Keenan Sanders scored four points on kills as a substitute.
2021 U.S. Men’s NORCECA Championship Roster
No Name (Pos, Height, Hometown, College, Region)
3 Spencer Olivier (OH, 6-6, Tustin, Calif., Long Beach State, So. Cal.)
5 Camden Gianni (OH, 6-5, Carlsbad, Calif., Grand Canyon, So. Cal.)
6 Samuel Kobrine (S, 6-3, Newport Beach, Calif., USC, So. Cal.)
7 Will Rottman (OH, 6-6, Santa Barbara, Calif., Stanford, So. Cal.)
8 Tyler Mitchem (MB, 6-11, Bolingbrook, Ill., Lewis, Great Lakes)
9 Jake Hanes (OP, 6-10, Orland Park, Ill., Ohio State, Great Lakes)
12 Brett Wildman (OH, 6-5, Virginia Beach, Va., Penn State, Old Dominion)
13 Merrick McHenry (MB, 6-7, Bedford, Texas, UCLA, North Texas )
15 Jalen Penrose (OP, 6-8, Cambridge, Mass., Penn State, New England)
16 C Josh Tuaniga (S, 6-3, Long Beach, Calif., Long Beach State, So. Cal.)
19 Keenan Sanders (MB, 6-6, San Diego, Calif., UCSB, So. Cal.)
20 Austin Wilmot (MB, 6-10, Valley Village, Calif., Pepperdine, So. Cal.)
24 Kyle Dagostino (L, 5-9, Tampa, Fla., Stanford, Florida)
25 Mason Briggs (L, 6-0, Valencia, Calif., Long Beach State, So. Cal.)
Head Coach: Andy Read
Assistant Coach: Keith Smith
Assistant Coach: Galen Dodd
Athletic Trainer: Jackie Chan
Team Manager: Jon Parry
2021 Men’s NORCECA Schedule (All times PT)
Live stream available at https://www.facebook.com/ieddurango/
August 18
USA def Guatemala, 3-2 (24-26, 25-23, 23-25, 25-20, 15-10)
Puerto Rico def Canada, 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-19)
Cuba def Dominican Republic, 3-1 (25-17, 29-31, 25-21, 25-19)
Mexico def Trinidad & Tobago, 3-0 (25-11, 25-13, 25-8)
August 19
Canada def Trinidad & Tobago, 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-14)
Cuba def Guatemala, 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-19)
USA def Dominican Republic, 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-18, 26-24)
Mexico def Puerto Rico, 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-18)
August 20
Puerto Rico def Trinidad & Tobago, 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-18)
Dominican Republic def Guatemala, 3-1 (29-31, 25-16, 25-19, 25-19)
Cuba def USA, 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-20)
Mexico def Canada, 3-0 (25-21, 28-26, 25-21)
August 21
Canada def USA, 3-2 (22-25, 25-22, 25-15, 22-25, 15-10)
Puerto Rico def Dominican Republic, 3-1 (25-22, 22-25, 25-16, 25-23)
August 22
Classification 5-8: Dominican Republic def Trinidad & Tobago, 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-20)
Classification 5-8: USA def Guatemala, 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-19, 33-31)
Semifinal: Puerto Rico def Cuba, 3-1 (25-16, 19-25, 26-24, 31-29)
Semifinal: Canada def Mexico, 3-0
August 23
11 a.m. Classification 7-8: Guatemala vs Trinidad & Tobago
1 p.m. Classification 5-6: USA vs Dominican Republic
4 p.m. Third-place match: Cuba vs Mexico
6 p.m. First-place match: Canada vs Puerto Rico