Gavin Schmitt scored a game-high 17 points in Canada's 3-0 win against Cuba in Calgary, opening their 2015 World League Pool C campaign with victory.
Calgary, Canada, May 16, 2015 - Giant Canada opposite Gavin Schmitt scored a game-high 17 points in their 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 26-24) Pool C win against Cuba on Saturday and he expects the visitors to come back hard in the follow-up match on Sunday.
Gavin Schmitt, player, CANADA: "We stayed pretty aggressive, we stayed patient and started to manage balls a lot better. They didn’t play as well as I think they can, and I think they’ll come out banging a little more tomorrow."
"I remember a couple of years ago, we’d get together at this point and it would take us weeks to iron things out. To be able to come out and play Cuba like this and get a win after so little training shows how far we’ve been able to come."
Glenn Hoag, head coach, CANADA: “The result was good for us, we did a lot of good things, but we can see we have a lot of work ahead of us, too. There is a lot of fine-tuning, it’s going to take time.”
Rolando Abreu, captain, CUBA: “It was a very difficult game because we haven’t played for a while, and this is the first game that we have had. We made a lot of mistakes at the beginning and throughout the match and also couldn’t win the second set because of a lot of mistakes.
"As the World League keeps going we will be able to elevate the performance and be able to win some games.”
Rodolfo Sanchez, head coach, Cuba: “It was a very difficult match. Our first match in six months. We made too many mistakes.”