Americans prevailed over Dominicans after intense battle 

COLIMA, Mexico, June 23, 2007.- USA recovered from a 9-11 deficit in the fifth set and defeated Dominican Republic 25-20, 18-25, 26-24, 18-25, 15-13 in two hours of exciting action in Pool A of the Pan American Cup.

Katherine Wilkins led the Americans with 22 points and Cassandra Busse and Jennifer Joines added 14 and 10 respectively. Dominican Bethania de la Cruz topped all the scorers with 25, Milagros Cabral had 19, Cosiris Rodriguez 11 and Annerys Vargas and Cindy Rondon 10 apiece.

“We had a lot of up and downs during the match but at the end we stayed together and pushed for the victory,” said American Robyn Ah Mow-Santos. “We knew it was going to be a very intense match.”

“We committed too many errors in key situations especially in blocking and reception,” said Dominican Cosiris Rodriguez. “But this tournament is just starting and we will be back.”

“Our idea was to serve and pass better today,” said Lang Ping, the USA coach. “The Dominicans served very good and won many points and I tried to encourage my young players to try to do the same.”

“My young players made some mistakes in the counterattacks and we missed some opportunities,” said Miguel Beato Cruz, the Dominican coach.