The overtime woes were profound for the United States.
The United States were unable to convert on game-points in two games as it lost to the Dominican Republic 23-25, 26-24, 31-29, 25-16 in its pool-play opener at the U23 NORCECA Pan American Cup on Tuesday in Guatemala.
Errors resulted in both overtime losses for the United States.
The Dominican Republic fought off a game-point to force overtime in the second game. In addition, the United States had two consecutive attack errors at the start of the overtime to drop the game.
The United States in the third game fought off five game-points and had a failed game-point of their own before committing back-to-back attack errors to end the game.
McKendree setter Nate Flayter guided the U.S. offense to a .448 attack percentage in the third game, but the Dominican Republic for the match out-hit the United States .357 to .274.
Dominican Republic pin-hitter Adrian Jose Figueroa Lantigua finished with a match-high 25 kills, including 14 kills in the third game.
UC Santa Barbara outside attacker George Bruening led the United States with 16 kills on a .313 attack percentage. Pepperdine pin-hitter Ryan Barnett also had 14 kills and hit .333, while UCLA middle attacker Cameron Thorne added 10 kills.
Along with the offensive performance, Thorne had a match-high five blocks. The United States finished with 12 blocks – eight more blocks than the Dominican Republic.