Dominican Republic and USA to semi finals in NORCECA U-20 

MONTERREY, Mexico, August 2, 2006.- Dominican Republic and USA advanced to the semi finals of the NORCECA Women’s U-20 Tournament and will benefit of a rest day on Thursday in this qualifier for the 2007 Juniors World Championship.

The Dominicans edged past Mexico in five sets 25-23, 25-20, 23-25, 22-25, 15-9, and the Americans got a 25-20, 24-26, 25-14, 25-15 victory against Canada.

On Thursday, Puerto Rico meet Cuba and Mexico clash with Canada in the quarterfinals. Trinidad & Tobago and Costa Rica will play for the seventh position.

The Dominicans showed their traditional offensive game with good blocking but had to face the strong opposition of the host squad supported by more than 3,000 spectators at Nuevo Leon Gymnasium.

“It doesn’t surprise me to see the host team play like this and even more with a team like Mexico who makes few errors and know how to play,” said Wilson Sanchez, the Dominican coach. “But it was a bad day for us, although we improved our serves and blocking to take the tie-breaker.”

Graig Skinner, the USA coach, was satisfied with the victory. “We made adjustments and brought some reserve players and everything worked out very well. The rest day will allow us to prepare better for the semi finals.”

In other matches on Wednesday, Cuba obtained its first victory in defeating Trinidad & Tobago 25-10, 25-16, 25-9, and Puerto Rico got a 25-11, 25-7, 25-10 win against Costa Rica.

Cuban Rachel Sanchez led the attack of her squad with 19 points and Arielle Flores added 12. Puerto Ricans Emily Calderon and Yomaira Santana had 8 and 7 respectively.

“It was game we knew we could win,” said Cuban coach Ana Ivis Diaz. “Trinidad & Tobago have a great future as a team.”

Luis Garcia, the Puerto Rican coach, used all the players in the 54 minutes triumph over Costa Rica with solid blockings and strong spikes during the three sets.