The fourth time was finally the charm for Canada to end the U.S. gold-medal hopes.
The United States fought off three championship-point attempts before losing in a fifth-game overtime to Canada 25-23, 21-25, 23-25, 25-23, 17-15 on Sunday in the U19 NORCECA Continental Championship gold-medal match.
The United States rallied from a 14-12 deficit in the decisive game with a kill from outside attacker Daniel Hornyak and a Canada attack error to force overtime. Outside attacker Jimmie Chursfield III in the overtime had a kill to fight off another match-point, but Canada responded with back-to-back to close out the match.
Hornyak in the team’s first loss of the international tournament finished with a team-high 22 kills, including having a combined 10 kills in the final two games.
Opposite Bryce Thistlethwaite added a 20 kills against Canada with half of those kills coming in the third-game victory. Chursfield also had 12 kills on a match-best .458 attack percentage.
Despite the loss, the United States out-hit Canada .264 to .233. Canada, though, limited the United States to a match-low .074 attack percentage in the final game.
Canada pin-hitter Hendrix Lepp had a match-high 25 kills.
Pin-hitter Julian Josephs added 16 kills, including a game-high five kills in the fifth game and the match-winning kill.
The top four teams from this international tournament qualified for the 2027 U19 World Championship.
Both the United States and Canada entered the gold-medal match having already qualified for the World Championship. Mexico and Costa Rica earned the other two bids from this qualification tournament.