Amanda Coneo’s 32pts carries Colombia into first Pan Am Games victory

LIMA, Peru, August 7, 2018. - With impressive 32 points, Amanda Coneo carried Colombia into their first Lima 2019 Pan American Games victory defeating host Peru 3-1 (21-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-22) on Thursday night.

Amanda Coneo´s 32 points including 29 kills, helped Colombia silence the five thousand Peruvian supporters at the Multisport Complex El Callao to improve her team’s win-loss record to 1-1 in pool A and keeping them in the battle to move into the medals round.

Colombia outblocked Peru with a sizeable 12-5 advantage while Peru led by slim 57-56 attacking margin and 4-3 in aces. Colombia committed 24 errors and Peru a total of 25.

Along with Amanda’s pounding force, outside hitter Margarita Martinez and opposite player Dayana Segovia contributed with 12 points apiece. Outside hitter Angela Leyva scored 27 points as Peru’s leading attacker and captain Karla Ortiz scored 15 points.

Colombia (1-1) will play against Canada (0-2) and Peru (1-1) will meet undefeated Dominican Republic (2-0) on Friday’s pool A last matches.

Comments:

Amanda Coneo, top scorer of Colombia: “It was a difficult match, with Peru at home they are one of the most difficult opponents, but I think Colombia played super well to obtain the result we wanted for our country because Colombia deserves this and a lot more”.

Antonio Rizola, Head coach of Colombia: “They are Colombia’s direct opponent, beating them coming from behind is really hard. Colombia showed character and personality against a crowd that supported Peru all the way. We won because we were more disciplined in tactically speaking; we played with our hearts for Colombia, for the efforts from our sport authorities in keeping us competing at a higher level”.

Angela Leyva, top scorer of Peru: “We played a great match despite the loss we battled with everything we have. We had a chance to win 3-0, I am sure of that. There’s nothing else but to congratulate Colombia because they took advantage when we dropped our performance. The tournament isn’t over and we will go on, proud of my teammates”.

Manuel Hervas, Head coach of: “It was really important to win over Colombia because tomorrow we will face Dominican Republic, one of the tournament’s favorite to win. Today the sets were really close but Coneo had an extraordinary rhythm and we weren’t capable in stopping her. We will fight with all we got and focused”.