With less than a week to go before the opening serve of the inaugural U-23 Pan American Men’s Volleyball Cup, the Langley Events Centre and its partners officially announced the competition schedule.
The six-day tournament, which will feature teams from Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Dominicana and Canada, will be comprised of a complete round robin over the first five days – with games being played at 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. – followed by three playoff games on the sixth and final day of competition.
After the round robin portion of the tournament, each of the six teams will play a playoff game Sept. 30. The top two teams from the round robin will play in the gold medal game (5 p.m.), the third and fourth place teams will play in the bronze medal game (3 p.m.) and the fifth and sixth place teams will play in the fifth place game (1 p.m.). All games will be played in the arena at the Langley Events Centre.
Canada, which will be represented by the Trinity Western University men’s volleyball team, will open the tournament against Mexico Sept. 25. The Spartans, who will don the maple leaf for the second time in as many years – having represented Canada last fall at the 2011 FIVB Club World Championship in Doha, Qatar –, have a schedule that will feature marquee matches in the latter portion of the week as they will play volleyball power Brazil Sept. 28 and highly-touted Argentina Sept. 29.
In another not-to-be-missed feature match-up, Brazil and Argentina will play Sept. 27 at 6 p.m.
Canada’s Schedule (all of Canada’s round robin games start at 8 p.m.)
Sept. 25 – Canada vs. Mexico
Sept. 26 – Canada vs. Venezuela
Sept. 27 – Canada vs. Dominicana
Sept. 28 – Canada vs. Brazil
Sept. 29 – Canada vs. Argentina
Sept. 30 – Playoffs
The U-23 Pan American Cup will feature some of the best volleyball-playing countries in the Americas as five of the six attending countries have senior teams currently in the top 25 of the FIVB World Rankings. The event will feature the stars of tomorrow, with many potential competitors on their way to eventually representing their countries at the senior level.
Teams Competing
FIVB Senior Rankings as per August 13, 2012
Brazil – FIVB Senior Ranking – 1st
Argentina – FIVB Senior Ranking – 9th
Canada – FIVB Senior Ranking – 18th
Venezuela – FIVB Senior Ranking – 20th
Mexico – FIVB Senior Ranking – 23rd
Dominicana – FIVB Senior Ranking – 93rd
FIVB Junior & Youth Rankings as per January 4, 2012
Argentina – FIVB Junior & Youth Ranking – 2nd
Brazil – FIVB Junior & Youth Ranking – 6th
Canada – FIVB Junior & Youth Ranking – 19th
Venezuela – FIVB Junior & Youth Ranking – 19th
Mexico – FIVB Junior & Youth Ranking – 25th
Dominicana – FIVB Junior & Youth Ranking – 28th
To buy tickets for the U-23 Pan American Volleyball Cup, go to www.langleyeventscentre.com