The path to a gold-medal for the United States at the U17 Pan American Cup just got a bit more challenging.
The United States was unable to secure a bye to the semifinals as it lost to Canada 19-25, 25-23, 25-20, 32-30 in its pool-play finale on Thursday in Guatemala.
The team entered the match undefeated in pool-play and could have clinched the pool championship and semifinals berth with a victory. The loss, though, drops the United States to a second-place finish in the pool and an upcoming quarterfinals match.
The United States nearly forced a decisive fifth-game against Canada but was unable to convert on five game-point opportunities. Canada benefitted from back-to-back U.S. errors and then delivered the match-winning kill to close out the 14-point overtime.
Pin-hitter Noah Mbaitoloum in the loss led all players with 23 kills on .405 attack percentage.
Mbaitoloum had a combined nine kills and one attack error in the first two games. The pin-hitter also finished with a game-high nine kills in the fourth game, including a kill during the overtime.
Along with Mbaitoloum, pin-hitter Gabriele Desiderio contributed 15 kills and Nikodem Opiola had nine kills on a .389 attack percentage.
Canada for the match out-hit the United States .254 to .231. In addition, Canada limited the United States to a match-low .086 attack percentage in the third game.
Middle attacker Liam Bendavid finished with a match-high five blocks, while Julian Josephs added four blocks against the United States.
Josephs and Bennnett Krahn each also had a team-high 18 kills en route to Canada securing a quarterfinals berth.