Canada wins gold at the NORCECA U19 Men’s Continental Volleyball Championship in Burnaby
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In front of cheering fans in the stands, Canada won a hard-fought battle with the United States for the gold medal at the NORCECA U19 Men’s Continental Volleyball Championship.
The Americans put the pressure on to keep a winning record at the tournament, but in the end, Canada prevailed 2-3 (23-25, 25-21, 25-23, 23-25, 15-17) for first place in front of a packed West Gym at Simon Fraser University. USA takes home the silver medal.
“I’m super happy for our guys, said Adam Schreimer, Canada’s U19 head coach. “We got better as the tournament went on. We didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for this tournament, so we had to improve during the event – it was a good progression.”
For Burnaby’s Nathan Herfst, competing in front of his family and friends was a special experience. “Its just surreal being able to play for my country in my hometown,” he said. “It is just awesome. We’ve been working hard all week. It was our goal to medal and get on that podium.”
USA head coach Andy Read was proud of his team’s fight: “You have to be willing to go all in and risk it all to win it all, and you have to be able to accept the result. It’s hard right now for them because both teams put everything they had into it, and someone has to come out a winner. But I’m super proud of how hard my guys played.”
On Sunday afternoon, Mexico earned the bronze medal after beating Costa Rica.
Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley praised all the athletes from the eight participating countries. He also thanked the volunteers and event staff for their efforts to stage the six-day, 22-game tournament. “Everyone worked so hard so we could see high-calibre sport.” He was thrilled to see the large crowd during the gold-medal game.
From this event the top four: Canada, USA, Mexico and Costa Rica qualified for the 2027 FIVB Boys’ U19 World Championship.
The rest of the field placed as follows:
5th Panama
6th Puerto Rico
7th Barbados
8th Dominican Republic
Canada’s Hendrix Lepp headlined the list of individual award winners at the tournament. Lepp, a 16-year-old outside hitter from Vancouver, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after guiding Canada to the gold medal. He also earned the honour of Best Spiker.
Explore Burnaby is the presenting sponsor of the tournament.
Story by Sam Corea with files from NORCECA and Volleyball Canada
Competition Images courtesy of Volleyball Canada and NORCECA
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