CANADA FALLS TO USA IN GOLD MEDAL GAME AT NORCECA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Lucas Van Berkel No. 12

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2010
NORCECA GOLD MEDAL GAME

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CANADA FALLS TO USA IN GOLD MEDAL GAME AT NORCECA CHAMPIONSHIPS

GATINEAU, Que. – When the volleyball historians look upon the 2010 NORCECA junior men’s championships, a silver medal for Canada will seem like a pretty impressive achievement.

It just may feel a little bitter right now for the red and white to swallow second place.

Canada’s national junior team – featuring TWU Spartans Lucas Van Berkel (2nd year, Edmonton, Alta.), who led Canada with two blocks in the final, and Braden Schmidt (1st year, Winton, Alta.) – lost in the gold medal game to the U.S. (25-14, 25-19, 25-16) before a full house at the Centre Sportif, but this year’s maple leafed ones will more likely be remembered for its stunning upset of Cuba in the semifinal.

“It was a great tournament for us,” said Canada’s head coach Greg Barthel. “It just hurts right now, but I’m sure later we’ll appreciate what we accomplished here.  I think it will just make us hungrier for next year at the world juniors.”

As for Van Berkel and Schmidt, the chance to play at such a high level was something Spartans coach Ben Josephson could only be excited about.

"The fact they received top level training and top level competition will go a long way for their development," he said.  "Any time an athlete gets exposed to that level of competition it is huge for their confidence and depth of experience they can draw on down the road.

"I would expect these two to come into camp hungry and ready to get to work to try to better the CIS silver medal we won last year and help our team build toward hosting the CIS national championship in March."

The gold medal was the Americans first ever at the North and Central America and the Caribbean tournament, which started in 1998 and is held every two years.

The Canadians, also silver medalists in 2008, had their best set in the second but a six point U.S. run midway through was too hard to make-up.
 
“The U.S. really came to play and we just got out played today,” said Edmonton’s Justin Olmstead.  “Our plan was to stick to what we we’ve doing all week and keep that block stable.  But they made it tough on us and we wound up making a lot of errors.”

The Canadian team was together for less than a month but managed to win its pool in the round robin before pulling off the upset of three-time defending champion Cuba.  

The U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, which beat Cuba for the bronze medal, earned spots for next year’s world championships in Brazil.

-TW-

-source NORCECA.org

About TWU:

Trinity Western University, located in Langley, B.C., is a not-for-profit Christian liberal arts university enrolling over 4,000 students this year. With a broad based, liberal arts and sciences curriculum, the University offers undergraduate degrees in 41 major areas of study ranging from business, education and computer science to biology and nursing, and 17 other graduate degrees including counselling psychology, theology and administrative leadership. For more information, visit TWU's Official Athletics site at gospartans.ca.

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport:

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-two universities, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. The CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, and 32 World University Championships. For further information, visit www.universitysport.ca.

About CWUAA:

"Canada West is consistently the most decorated of the four conferences in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), winning at least 10 CIS national titles every year since 1997-98. Comprised of 13 schools, from Manitoba to B.C., the CWUAA produces numerous major award winners and Academic All-Canadian student-athletes each year, with many going on to athletic success around the globe in events such as the Olympics or Universiade Games."

-TW-

Last Updated: 2010-08-25
Author: Mark Janzen