Puerto Rico keep chances alive

TIJUANA, Mexico, July 4 2012 - Puerto Rico kept its world championship qualification hopes alive, following a victory over US Virgin Islands 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-21) at the NORCECA U-19 Boys’ Continental Championship.

Jose Pagan collected 14 points and Juan Ruiz Goyco had 11 for Puerto Rico, while Thomas Aseah tallied 16 for the U.S. Virgin Islands’ team that was close to give a surprise on the last set.

“We came out strong, but we didn’t play at full capacity. We started slow and lost the second set, and in the third we had a strong start but finished weakly,” said Lakish Plante, who was chosen as acting captain on Wednesday morning, after Nayib Gonzalez was under medical surveillance.

 “Our captain is sick and it was a big loss for us, we played well at the end, but we need to be more consistent in our play,” Coach Mark Daniel said about the Caribbean team that has shown good individual abilities during the tournament like the case of Aseah.

For Puerto Rican captain Luis Garcia, this was the perfect chance to improve. “Fortunately we could capitalize some aspects and correct some mistakes we had been making since the first match and played more in the middle as well as on the corners,” he commented.

Puerto Rican coach Carlos Rodriguez remarked about the chance to make it into the quarterfinals. “In this match we regained confidence, we still have some mistakes and some things to correct but are already in qualification zone, go for a victory in the next round and reach the semifinals, but we also need to improve our transition to reach the level the other teams have shown.”