COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Aug. 24, 2019) – The U.S. Men’s Sitting Team split a pair of matches to open the Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru, as part of its quest to qualify for the 2020 Paralympics Games. Team USA overwhelmed Peru in the first match, then started strong against world No. 2 Brazil before falling in four sets.

The U.S. Men continue the preliminary round with matches on Sunday against Colombia at noon ET and Costa Rica at 8 p.m. ET. The Americans conclude their preliminary phase on Monday versus Canada at 6 p.m. ET. Semifinals are set for Tuesday and final classification matches are on Wednesday. The Parapan American Games winner earns a berth into the 2020 Paralympic Games.

The U.S. Men opened its Parapan American Games with a convincing 25-4, 25-4, 25-16 victory on Saturday morning.

Patrick Young (Albuquerque, New Mexico) paced the U.S. with 11 points, including eight in the second set. Chris Seilkop (Deland, Florida) added 10 points over the final two sets, including two blocks. Zach Upp (Bartlett, Illinois) totaled seven points, all in the first set. Stephen Bracken (Brighton, Colorado) turned in seven points with five kills on nine attacks. JDee Marinko (Newcastle, Oklahoma) posted five kills on seven attacks in the victory. Dan Regan (St. Louis, Missouri), Eric Duda (Marietta, Georgia), James Stuck (New Kensington, Pennsylvania) and Charlie Swearingen (Gulfport, Mississippi) all tallied three points. All 10 non-liberos scored at least three points for the Americans.

Team USA converted 26 of 52 attacks into points against Peru and had 26 aces on 73 serves. Peru scored just three four on 26 attacks. Peru was out-blocked by the Americans 4-3.

The U.S. went on a 10-0 on Stuck’s service to stake a 17-3 advantage in the opening set and finished it at 25-4. Upp scored seven points in the first set. The Americans opened the second set with a 13-1 advantage and cruised to the 25-4 victory as Young scored eight points in the middle set. Peru was competitive in the final set as it took a 7-4 advantage before the U.S. regained the lead at 9-8. Team USA used a 7-0 run on Young’s serve to go up 16-10 and completed the sweep with a 25-16 victory.

The Americans opened their match against Brazil with a strong 25-14 victory, but was unable to sustain the momentum in losing the next three sets 25-17, 25-20, 25-20.

Stuck scored a match-high 15 points in the loss, including seven kills, seven blocks and an ace. Marinko scored 11 points with eight kills and three aces.  Upp had 10 points with six kills, three aces and a block. Roderick Green (West Monroe, Louisiana) charted seven blocks and two kills for nine points. Stephen Bracken (Brighton, Colorado) contributed three kills, two aces and a block for six points. Duda rounded out the scoring with four kills.

The U.S. held a 9-3 advantage in aces but only had a 24 kill percent to Brazil’s 34 percent. Both teams had 16 blocks in the match.

Team USA bolted to a 9-4 lead early in the opening set and cruised to the 25-14 victory. Brazil used a 7-1 run to stake an 18-11 margin in the second set and went on to the easy set win to level the match. Brazil charged out to a 10-3 advantage in the third set before the Americans rallied to take a 16-15 lead. Brazil would score six of the final eight points of the third set. The fourth set was closely contested as Team USA battled to an 18-all tie before Brazil scored seven of the final nine points.