Middle-blocker Marc-Anthony Honore, T&T’s lone professional men’s player, captured the "Best Blocker" award when the Seventh Pan American Cup came to an end at the Ricardo Arias Volleyball Palace, Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Centre, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on Saturday night. Honore had eight blocks in his 23 points tally as T&T ended in eighth spot following a loss to world 18th ranked Argentina 27-25, 18-25, 25-20, 25-27, 15-13 in just over two hours. Leading the way for Venezuela, which was outblocked by T&T 21-5 who were undone by 41 errors to the winners' 26, was Hector Salerno with 17 points, while Jhoser Contreras got 16, Kervin Penerua 15 and Daniel Escobar, nine. Nolan Tash and Ryan Stewart had 18 points each, while Sean Morrison 11 and Jessel Davis ten, led the way for T&T. Taylor Sander, from the USA’s champion team, was chosen as the "Most Valuable Player".

Accompanying the 20-year-old Sander on the All-Star list were his teammates Antonio Ciarelli as the "Best Attacker" and Dustin Watten, "Best Defender". The honour roll was completed by the Dominican Republic duos Jose Miguel Caceres "Best Scorer",  Elvis Contreras, "Best Server" and "Best Receiver", and Edwin Peguero, highlighted as the "Best Libero" while Pedro Rangel of Mexico was the "Best Setter". In the tournament final on Saturday night, USA added to its previous triumphs of 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010 when it defeated Argentina 29-27, 25-20, 25-21 to claim the gold medal. Both teams entered the match with undefeated records but the South Americans had to settle for the silver medals, the same as in 2010 when they also fell to the USA. USA’s Carson Clark was the highest scorer of the match with 19 points and his teammate Sander added ten. For Argentina, Gonzalo Quiroga and Mariano Giustiniano were the best scorer and only collected six points apiece.
On Friday night, USA overcame Dominican Republic  25-21, 23-25, 25-22, 25-27, 15-12 in its main draw semifinal while in the other semifinal, Argentina also scored a thrilling five-set victory over Brazil 25-20, 25-17, 27-25, 18-25, 15-13.

Dominican Republic claimed the bronze medal for the fourth time after beating last year’s winner Brazil 28-26, 25-23, 21-25, 24-26,15-11. Once again, the Dominican captain Jose Miguel Caceres (27) topped the offense with the effective support of Elvis Contreras (17) and Elnis Palomino (14). For Brazil, the top scorers were Mauricio Borges (19), Gustavo Bonatto (16), Alan Ferreira Souza Earlier on Saturday, Mexico claimed fifth after outdueling Canada in another five setter, 25-17, 22-25, 25-22, 18-25 y 15-13 that lasted almost two hours. Opposite Daniel Vargas spearheaded the Mexican offense with 18 points, followed by Marco Macías (17) and Leonardo Manzo and Ismael Guerrero with 12 apiece. Canadian Dane Pischke with 27 points was the top scorer in the match with 27 points and James Marshall added 15. Yesterday, the T&T team left Santo Domingo for St Croix, US Virgin Islands where it will begin defence of its Senior Caribbean Championship title which starts today and will end on Saturday at the Ronald "Ranchee" Charles Gymnasium, Central High School, Kingshill. The Nolan Tash led squad which will see Kevin Nimrod and Russel Pena  replacing Kevin Francois and Joshua Mohamed, starts its pool campaign against Martinique tonight before facing Jamaica and Barbados on Tuesday and Wednesday. Host USVI, Guadeloupe and Bahamas are in the other group.

-Nigel Simon

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