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The United States had a tournament-best performance blocking and from former Lewis outside attacker Greg Petty but it still wasn’t enough to knock off undefeated Argentina.
Petty had a match-high 15 kills and four aces as the United States lost to first-place Argentina 25-21, 25-22, 24-26, 25-23 on Friday in Reno, Nevada, to conclude the group-play stage at the Pan American Cup.
The United States (1-2, 7 points) in the loss out-blocked Argentina 14 to 5. In addition, Loyola middle attacker Jeff Jendryk, Lewis middle attacker Bobby Walsh and UC Santa Barbara setter Jonah Seif each led all players with three blocks.
Outside attacker Lisandro Zanotti led Argentina (3-0, 13 points) with 15 kills against the United States.
Petty was the only U.S. to have double-digit kills. Former Springfield outside attacker Andrew Nally had eight kills, while BYU All-American opposite Ben Patch added seven kills before being pulled after the second game.
With this loss, the United States finishes group-play in third place and will advance to play Canada (2-1, 8 points) in the Pan American Cup quarterfinals on Saturday.
Argentina as the group-play champion received a bye to the semifinals and will play the winner of the other quarterfinals match between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.