Team USA named for 2015 Pan Am Games

The USA has announced its team for the 2015 Pan American Games. They will be led by veterans Rocky Carson and Rhonda Rajsich, who will both play Men’s and Women’s Singles, respectively. The other American singles players will be Jake Bredenbeck and Michelle Key.

The USA doubles teams will be Jansen Allen and Jose Rojas in Men’s Doubles and Rajsich and Kim Russell-Waselenchuk in Women’s Doubles.

Carson is the defending Pan American champion in Men’s Singles, and Rajsich was silver medalist in both Women’s Singles and Women’s Doubles four years ago in Guadalajara, Mexico. Russell-Waselenchuk was silver medalist in Women’s Doubles twelve years ago in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, playing with Jackie Paraiso.

Thus, the veterans on the team have all been on the podium previously. The majority of the team are playing in their first Pan Am Games, and Key is playing in her first event for the USA.

Supporting the team will be Dave Ellis as Head Coach, RO Carson as Assistant Coach, Brent Huff as Team Trainer and Cheryl Kirk as Team Leader.

The 2015 Pan American Games will be held next month in Toronto, Canada. The racquetball competition of the games will begin July 19 and end July 26. There will be singles and doubles competitions initially from July 19 to July 24, and then a team competition from July 24 to July 26. The doubles competition is a best of three matches on both the Women’s and Men’s sides, where countries go head to head with two singles matches and a doubles match. The order of play in the team competition varies in each round, so doubles, for example, could be the first match or the second or the third.

US Team for 2015 Pan American Games

Men’s Players - Rocky Carson (MS), Jake Bredenbeck (MS), Jansen Allen (MD) & Jose Rojas (MD)

Women’s Players - Rhonda Rajsich (WS & WD), Michelle Key (WS) & Kim Russell-Waselenchuk (WD)

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