Dominican Republic advances into Lima 2019 semifinals undefeated

LIMA, Peru, August 9, 2019. – Dominican Republic advanced into Lima 2019 Pan American Games semifinals winning pool A undefeated after beating host Peru 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-17) at the Multisport Complex El Callao in Lima, Peru.

Dominicans physical presence and force over the net dominated host Peru who played with character in their last pool-play performance. Dominican Republic will play against Argentina on Saturday’s semifinal match, while Peru goes against Puerto Rico for the final classification fifth place match.

Dominican Republic’s stats were superior with 46-30 margin in attacks, 8-6 in blocks and 8-2 in serves. Peru committed one less error (13-14) than Dominican Republic.

Bethania De La Cruz led Dominicans offense with 19 points on 13 attacks, 2 blocks and 4 powerful serves, followed by Gaila González with 13 points. Angela Leyva scored 14 points, the only Peruvian player with double-digits.

Comments:

Bethania De La Cruz, best scorer of Dominican Republic: “There was a lot of excitement for Peru playing at home and we needed to be confident and keep our undefeated record to move in comfortably to the semifinals. We executed very well to finish in three sets”.

Marcos Kwiek, Head coach of Dominican Republic: “We were well concentrated, we continued to serve aggressively and that made our blocking easier, our transition was very good which was important for tomorrow’s semifinal”.

Zoila La Rosa, setter of Peru: “It’s hard on us to have lost, even more playing at home with so many supporters, I believe we have to keep on training. We wanted to do our best but unfortunately it wasn’t possible, now we must raise our heads and continue for our next goal of qualifying to the Olympics”.

Francisco Hervas, Head coach of Peru: “This was our worst performance; we weren’t able to control Dominican Republic’s serves and was really hard because it’s hard to face such a physical team without controlling the fundaments of receiving. We resisted in the first set but then we were unorganized and we couldn’t get back into rhythm and Dominicans didn’t let us play”.