Mexico defeat Puerto Rico in straight sets 

TIJUANA, Mexico, July 3, 2012 - Mexico clinched a berth in the second round at the NORCECA Boys’ U-19 Continental Championship after defeating Puerto Rico 3-0  (25-15, 25-20, 25-17) on Tuesday night.

Alexis Garay converted 13 points for México and Mauricio López contributed 9. Puerto Rico’s Juan Ruiz Goyco finished with 9 points and Brian Negrón added 6. Puerto Rico will match US Virgin Islands while Mexico will face USA on Wednesday night.

“This was a very important match, we prepared today in the morning against a very tough team, a high level one, very tall. Fortunately we did not make mistakes and kept am advantage of more than three points and everything we talked in the practices helped us a lot,” Mexico’s captain Mauricio López said.

“I am happy with the victory, the boys played really well against a good quality team like Puerto Rico,” Mexican coach Oscar Licea said. “We shall not lose our minds. Now we will focus in USA.”

For Puerto Rican captain, Luis García the key was in pass situation errors. “We failed in the pass, yesterday against USA we played better. During the morning practice we tried to correct that, but we couldn’t make it, but we must go on,” García said.

Despite the two losses, Puerto Rico’s coach Carlos Rodríguez keeps the confidence in his team. “I am very proud of them, a group  15 to 16 years-old youngsters, we hope to have a better match tomorrow, we will be on the classification round and once you get there anything can happen”.