Dominican Republic beat Puerto Rico and will play the final against the United States

TRUJILLO, Peru, July 13, 2019.- The Dominican Republic defeated Puerto Rico 3-1 (25-16, 25-20, 27-29, 25-20) and for the third consecutive time will play against the defending champion, United States. United, for the gold medal of the Women's Pan American Cup.

The Dominicans stayed with the first set marking the difference with their block. The following sets were much more even, but when the score was more adjusted, Brayelin Martinez, Bethania de la Cruz and Annerys Valdez would appear to guide their team to a new final.

Martinez, De la Cruz and Valdez got 25, 16 and 14 points respectively. For the Puerto Ricans the leader was Paulina Prieto, with 30 points; supported him in offensive Stephanie Enright with 12 units.

The Dominican blockade was key in the victory, with a superiority of 15 points against only 5 of the opposing team. The winners dominated in attack (57-53), but were ceded in service (4-5).

Dominican coach, Marcos Kwiek: It was a good game for us, Puerto Rico knew how to put us in difficulties with their fast game, that gives us a good pace for tomorrow's game against the United States, a team that makes very few mistakes. It will be a beautiful final and we will go out and do our best game.

Puerto Rico coach, José Mieles: Dominican presented its strongest starters, and it took us a while to decipher their game. As the game progressed we found some of its weaknesses, but it was not enough. We know that Colombia is a team with a lot of character, it will be a strong match, we hope to be able to stay with the third position.