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USA Men Chase a Fourth Straight Title
The Americans swept Guatemala 25-19, 25-13, 25-16 to go two from two in the round robin. They have won this tournament in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The United States men beat Guatemala 25-19, 25-13, 25-16 on Monday in Ponce and are two matches into the defence of a title they have held for three years.
The NORCECA Men's Final Six runs to Saturday at the Juan Pachín Vicéns Auditorium in Puerto Rico. Six teams play a round robin through Thursday, the semifinals are Friday and the medal matches are Saturday.
The United States won the last three of these, in 2023, 2024 and 2025. The tournament feeds qualification for the 2027 Men's Pan American Cup and awards FIVB world ranking points.
Guatemala Won One Column and Lost Everything Else
The United States scored 41 attack points to Guatemala's 23, blocked eleven to four and served five aces to none. Jacob Pasteur scored 16 points, Patrick Rogers 12 and Kyle Hobus 11.
Guatemala's two leading scorers, Carlos López and Andy Blanco, finished with six points each. The Guatemalans made 18 errors to the Americans' 21, which is the only line on the sheet they won.
Blanco scored six of them and then explained the match better than the numbers do.
They are a high-level team with young and very fast athletes. We also have a young group, but their height and the speed of their game affected us quite a bit. Even so, this will help us for the rest of the tournament. We're calm, we know we could have done better, and there are still more matches ahead to adjust and improve. These were two very difficult matches; they always are. We always start with two strong opponents, and as the championship progresses, I think we need to strengthen the team's unity a bit more — which is already there and is actually very strong — but we still need to analyze a few things and study our other opponents.
Guatemala lost 3-0 to Canada on Sunday before losing 3-0 to the United States on Monday. Blanco's two very difficult matches are those two, and his team has four more in this round robin.
Mexico Took the Only Set Anybody Has
Mexico won the third set on Sunday and lost the other three, including a first set that ran to 32-30. Diego González scored 20 points for Mexico, more than anybody on either side, and Mexico lost in four.
Puerto Rico beat the Dominican Republic in four on Sunday and Canada swept Guatemala the same night, so the round robin reached Monday with three teams unbeaten.
The Serve Is Where the Gap Showed
Troy Gooch plays libero for the United States.
I think we did a really good job focusing on our side of the net. We talked about being strong in serve-receive and taking care of the easy plays. They put some pressure on us with their serving, but I think we handled it well. I also think we did an excellent job putting our serves in, so it was really good for us to come out and gain more momentum.
Five aces to none is that passage from the other side. Guatemala did not ace the United States once in three sets, and the Americans blocked eleven balls to Guatemala's four.
NORCECA had not published Monday's other two results, Mexico against the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico against Canada, by Tuesday morning. The standings behind the United States are unknown rather than close.
