USA, Canada, Brazil clinch last three quarter-final berths in Olympic men's volleyball

The Uniteds States, Canada and Brazil clinched the last three quarter-final berths on offer as the men's volleyball preliminaries of the Rio Olympic Games concluded here Monday evening.

The United States overpowered their North American rivals Mexico 3-0 (25-23, 25-11, 25-19) in Pool A to record their third straight win following two consecutive losses and get through to the quarter-finals.

"I am really happy to get this win and move on to the quarter-finals, when early on in this tournament it looked like it was going to be a difficult challenge," said the American head coach John Speraw. "We survived and persevered when things weren't really looking good. We're proud of the team for the way they have grown in the course of this tournament."

Murphy Troy and Taylor Sander scored 12 points apiece to lead the American offense whiel David Lee and Maxwell Holt each added 11 points.

The Americans outblocked Mexico 9-1 and produced eight aces, compared to none of Mexico.

Later on Monday, Canada also secured their berth in the quarter-finals after holding off Italy 25-23, 25-17, 16-25 and 25-21 for their third win in five preliminary matches. Gavin Schmitt scored game-high 25 points for the Canadians, who snapped a four-game winning streak of Italy.

Luca Vettori led Italy with 20 points and Osmany Juantorena added 16 points, but the Italians gave away 34 points through errors.

In the last match of Monday, Brazil beat France 3-1 to grab the last ticket to the top eight.

In pool B, Argentina eased past Egypt 3-0, Russia beat Iran 3-0 and Poland swept Cuba 3-0. Argentina, Poland, Russia and Iran advanced to the quarter-finals as top four finishers from pool B while Egypt and Cuba were sent packed at the conclusion of the round robin preliminaries.

Source : XINHUA