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Dominican Republic beats Puerto Rico for fifth place

CALI, Colombia, November 29, 2021. - Dominican Republic beat Puerto Rico 3-1 (26-24, 22-25, 25-21, 25-16) for fifth place at the men’s volleyball tournament of the I Junior Pan American Games Cali-Valle 2021.

 

Dominican Republic finished the event with a 2-2 record and Puerto Rico with 1-3.

 

The winners only led in aces by an 8-3 margin, but scored on 42 opponent unforced errors while committing 18. Puerto Rico held advantage in attacks 53-42 and a huge 12-6 margin in blocks.

 

Outside hitter Bryan Turbides topped Dominican Republic with 14 points, accompanied by opposite hitter Rafael Almonte with 12 points and outside hitter Juan Daniel Feliz collected 11 points.

 

Opposite hitter Sebastián Negron of Puerto Rico scored a match-high of 25 points and his teammates outside hitter Omar Hoyos and middle blocker Antonio Elías tallied 11 and 12 points respectively.

 

Alexander Gutiérrez, head coach of Dominican Republic: “Finishing fifth with such a young team is a great success; it shows that we are working correctly and that we must continue to improve our process. We came off two points short of being among the semifinalists”.

 

Gerardo De Jesús Sánchez, head coach of Puerto Rico: “We were knocked out from last night’s match, it was intense and it wore us out; to play for fifth place in less than 24 hours of playing such a great game in five sets is something that this young team is still not prepared”.