Puerto Rico dominates Costa Rica

CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, July 17, 2014 – Puerto Rico controlled the basic skills against Costa Rica to claim their first victory in the Final Playoff of NORCECA towards the Men’s World Championship.

The home team dominated from start to finish winning by scores of 25-16, 25-19, 25-14.

The Puerto Rican squad held the advantage in attacks 36-26, 11-3 in blocks and six to four in direct services to get a comfortable victory.

During the first set, the local team relied on the good job by middle blocker Mannix Roman and the rest of the way the offensive load was on the shoulders of Maurice Torres and Ezequiel Cruz.

Puerto Rico had Torres with 15 points while Cruz and Román added 10 and nine points, respectively. Costa Rica introduced Richard Smith as its best scorer with 11 points.

“We tried to do some things during the match, but the game of Puerto Rico was superior all the way,” Costa Rican Coach Cesar Salas said.

On the other hand, David Aleman, Coach of Puerto Rico left well satisfied with the outcome. “I was able to rotate all the personnel as the group had not played since the last match of the World League. I rotated them and could see how they are.”

The Captain of Puerto Rico said to be pleased with the result. “We did what we had planned, there are always some areas you need to improve and be ready for the two most important matches of the tournament,” Angel Perez said.

Puerto Rico will face Guatemala on Friday at 19:30 following the match of Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.