The dominant offensive tournament run for UCLA opposite David Decker ended with a gold medal.
Decker led all players with 27 kills on a .622 attack percentage as the United States defeated Costa Rica 25-16, 23-25, 25-13, 25-17 in the gold-medal match of the U23 Pan American Cup on Sunday in El Salvador.
Decker following the game-two loss had game-high nine kills and zero errors in the third game, including three kills and two aces as part of a 14-3 run. The opposite in the final game also had five kills and the match-winning kill to secure the championship.
The All-MPSF senior committed one attack error through the first three games en route to the United States finishing the tournament undefeated.
This was the third match at the international tournament that Decker had double-digit kills and led the United States in kills.
Lewis setter Cameron Hoying guided the offense to out-hit Costa Rica .505 to .117.
Along with the offensive performance, Hoying had a match-high three aces. The United States finished with eight aces – seven more aces than Costa Rica.
BYU outside attacker Trevor Herget added 15 kills and hit .454. In addition, Ball State middle attacker Will Patterson contributed five kills and zero errors on a team-best .714 attack percentage.
Pin-hitter Stanley Grant in the loss had a team-high 13 kills. Grant, though, was the only Costa Rica player to have double-digit kills against the United States.
Costa Rica in its first loss of the tournament hit .100 or less in three of the four games, including a match-low negative-.067 attack percentage in the final game.