Canadian John Gordon Perrin shows his emotions after the surprising straight-set win over USA
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 7, 2016 – Canada scored a major upset by defeating United States in straight sets 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-23) in a match of Pool A of the men’s volleyball tournament of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games on Sunday afternoon.
The biggest difference in the stats of the match between NORCECA rivals was in the unforced errors with the losers giving away 28 points in faults compared to 16 by the winners.
Nicholas Hoag had 14 points, including two aces, to lead Canada and teammate Gavin Schmidt followed with 13. John Gordon Perrin finished with nine points in the victory.
Matt Anderson had a match-high 15 points, with two blocks, in the losing cause while Aaron Russell added 12 in the loss, all via spikes.
It was a close battle between the two teams from North America in the first set decided in the very late part when Schmidt hit a spike off the USA block for the 25-23 win. The Canadians took advantage of 15 unforced opponent’s errors.
The two sides battled closely until 15-all when Canadian John Gordon Perrin scored with a spike to spark a four-point rally that was decisive for the 25-17 outcome.
In the third set at 14-all, the Canadian Duffy crashed his serve and Lee and Russell parlayed ace and spike to give USA a two-point lead at 16-14. Canada came back and took a two-point lead with a soft hit by Hoag at 21-19. Lee and Anderson scored on blocks to tie at 22-all. Two consecutive spikes by Schmidt with the score at 23-23 gave the triumph to Canada.