Puerto Rico unbeaten at Men’s Pan American Cup

Puerto Rico unbeaten at Men’s Pan American Cup

COLIMA, Mexico, June 17, 2019.- Puerto Rico remains unbeaten at the XIV Men’s Pan American Cup after winning 3-1 (23-25, 25-14, 25-18, 25-15) to Trinidad and Tobago at the Mulfunctional Auditorium in Colima, Mexico.

Trinidad and Tobago with a solid beginning surprised Puerto Rico winning the first set. Puerto Rico’s recovery was fast, improving in blocking and limiting their errors to lead a comfortable second set. Puerto Rico finished with Trinidad and Tobago’s hard work to keep their unbeaten pool B record.

Puerto Rico topped Trinidad and Tobago with 54-35 margin in attack, 10-6 in blocks and 8-2 in aces. Puerto Rico committed more errors than Trinidad and Tobago (29-26).

Puerto Rico used a balanced scoring attack with Pelegrin Vargas (16pts), Kevin Lopez (15pts), Jonathan Rodriguez (12pts) and Javier Rodriguez (12pts). Ryan Stewart scored 14 points, the only player with double-figures for Trinidad and Tobago.

Pool B resumes on Tuesday with Puerto Rico (2-0) against host Mexico (1-0) and Trinidad and Tobago (0-2) facing Peru (0-1).

Comments:

Kevin López, wing spiker Puerto Rico: “We were overconfident at the start and during the match we had a better game plan improving our strategy, keeping a firm blocking line so the defense could execute and counterattack for scoring points”.

Ryan Stewart, top scorer Trinidad and Tobago: “We had high-intensity in the beginning; we just went down, fluctuating a lot. I think we had a pretty good game. We’ll rest and come back tomorrow with all our guns ready to the match against Peru”.

Oswald Antonetti, coach Puerto Rico: “This has been a long summer, our technical/tactical consistency has been really important, so we will come out from less to more with these talented players. Most of them are newcomers because we are playing our superior league back home, this is a promising team”.

Gideon Dickson, coach Trinidad and Tobago: “It was a great start, our intensity and reception went down; when that takes place we tend to be reactive as supposed to be playing aggressively. Going forward we must learn from that mistake, jumping in with high intensity my team was truly tested”.