Colombia triumphed with blocking against Chile

 LIMA, Peru, May 7, 2019 - Colombia used its block to defeat Chile and closed with a 3-2 victory (25-18, 25-21, 18-25, 19-25, 15-12) its participation in Pool B of the U21 Pan-American Cup, the last qualifying tournament to the Bahrain World Championship.

In the first two sets, the coffee team took the Chileans out of the game thanks to the strength of their block. However, the anxiety for the victory played against Colombia that gave 50 points in unforced errors.

Chile took advantage of every mistake of the rival, managing to force the fifth set, but their effort was not enough and with a collective offensive work the Colombians claimed the coveted triumph.

The Chilean captain, Vicente Ibarra was the highest scorer of the match with 21 points, followed by Manfred Borgstedt with 16. The main scoring figures for Colombia were: Leiner Aponza (18), Ronnie Mosquera (13), Andrés Guzmán (11) and Daniel Aponza (eleven).

 Colombia showed greater strength with the block (11-5), with 6 points from middle blocker Daniel Aponza; In addition, they had an advantage in attack (52-43) and were outscored in service (1-3).

Leiner Aponza, attacker of Colombia: We entered very happy the first two sets, in the third we trusted, we left the game and began to make many mistakes. Fortunately in the fifth things went well and thank God we are in the next stage.

Manfred Borgstedt, Chile's top attacker: At first we were taken out of play with the block, but then we started to follow the coach's instructions and things started to work. In the last set, we lacked to define in the attack, but in spite of the result it is important that we manage to advance and we will continue giving the fight.

With the result today, both teams accumulated 8 points and secured their classification to the Quarter Finals that will be played on Wednesday 8 at the Manuel Bonilla Coliseum in Miraflores.