Puerto Rico beat USA, Cuba and Dominican Republic also won 

BAYAGUANA, Dominican Republic, August 23, 2006.- Puerto Rico, Cuba and Dominican  Republic won its opening matches at the NORCECA Boys U-19 Tournament, a qualifier for next year’s FIVB World Championship.

Puerto Ricans defeated USA Team in straight sets (26-24, 25-21. 25-20) with great floor defense coverage and good attack.

Emmanuel Batista was the top scorer for Puerto Rico with 13 points and Omar Rivera chipped in 11 points.

“After a slow start we could adjust our game and used the attack down the corners avoiding the size of our opponents,” said Batista.

“It was a 3-0 outcome but it was not an easy match because nere is easy to defeat USA,” he added.

“Without taking anything off our rivals, we committed too many mistakes and that caused our loss,” said Teddy Adamczyk, the American captain.

Carson Clark with 16 points and Austin Ellis and Bradley Lawson each with 8, were the best for USA.

Cuba beat Mexico 3-0 (25-23, 25-22 y 25-19) with Armando Danger leading the way with 16 points and Rolando Cepeda chipping in 11 points.

“Even that we won, it was a very tense game because we had 10 years without competing at this level,” said Manuel Espinosa, the Cuban coach. “We had some up and downs but finally we could solve them and our game will improve with the competition.”

“Our serves and the attack were the key factors,” said Alberto Rosa, the captain of Cuba, who finished with 9 points.

Francisco Enriquez and Carlos Ruvalcaba were the top scorers of Mexico with 10 and 7 respectively.

In the last match of the evening, host Dominican Republic beat Guatemala 3-1 (25-12, 21-25, 25-13, 25-18).