IRVINE, Calif.... The United States qualified for the 2010 FIVB Men’s World Championships in Italy with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-15) victory over Dominican Republic on Monday at the Bren Center of University of California Irvine.
Team USA finished the tournament with a 3-0 record. Dominican Republic finished 2-1 and will travel to Guadalajara, Mexico later this month for a last chance at qualifying in a playoff tournament.
Evan Patak, named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament, led all scorers on Monday with 16 points, including five aces. Sean Rooney had three aces among his 15 points and David Lee contributed 12 points with three blocks. Dominican Jose Caceres led his team with 14 points.
Team USA out-served Dominican Republic, with an 11-2 advantage and also outscored its opponent seven to three in blocks.
"Obviously the goal was to qualify for the World Championships," said U.S. head coach Alan Knipe. "But I thought along the way we played some real good volleyball."
"It was clear we had some trouble with their serving," said Victor Batista, the Dominican captain. "We only came together a couple of weeks ago. We will go train in Mexico for a week before the next qualifier."
Earlier on Monday, Panama defeated Guatemala 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-11) to take third place.
With the victory, Panama finished the tournament 1-2 but advanced to the final World Championship qualifier next week in Guadalajara as the best third-place finisher of the three third-round NORCECA tournaments.
They will be competing against Mexico Canada and Dominican Republic for the last two tickets available in NORCECA to Italy 2010.
Panama's Jose Cunningham led all scorers with 14 points. Domingo Avila added 12 points and Carlos Zuniga scored 11 tallies, while Jeyson Flores led Guatemala with 15 points.
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