U.S. Men Beat Guatemala; Will Play for 5th at NORCECA

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.

 

“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.