USA defeats Canada, ends Pan Am Games in 5th place

For the second consecutive day, the United States won a match in five games and finished the Pan American Games outside of the bottom three.

The U.S. Men’s Volleyball Pan American Games Team overcame two match points to defeat Canada 22-25, 25-15, 25-19, 21-25, 19-17 on Saturday in Guadalajara, Mexico to end the international tournament in fifth place.

Outside attacker Evan Patak, the lone member of the U.S. Men’s National Team to participate in the eight-team tournament, had a team-high 19 kills in the victory.

Patak was one of four U.S. players to have at least 10 kills against Canada (2-3). Outside attacker Evan Vance had 18 kills, while USC outside attacker Tony Ciarelli had a 14 kills and UCLA middle attacker Nick Vogel had 11 kills.

Vogel also had a match-high nine blocks as the United States (3-3) out-blocked Canada 16-9.

Vogel and Ciarelli were two of four current college players on the U.S. roster for the Pan American Games.

All but one of the United States’ six matches at the Pan American Games went to five games. The United States went 3-2 in its five-game matches with its two losses coming against Canada in group-play and Argentina in the quarterfinals.

After losing in the quarterfinals, the United States defeated Venezuela on Friday to advance to the fifth-place consolation match.

This was the lowest finish for the United States at the Pan American Games since 1999.