Cruz, Torres and Sierra contribute to first Puerto Rican victory at Pan Am Cup

TIJUANA, Mexico, August 12, 2014.- Puerto Rico granted its first victory at IX Men’s Pan Am Cup after a 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 28-26) win over Dominican Republic in Pool B.

Ezequiel Cruz, Maurice Torres and Pedrito Sierra combined a total of 33 points by scoring 11 apiece for the Puerto Rican Team, while Mannix Roman finished with 10, six of them by blocking.

Jose Miguel Caceres was the top scorer for Dominican Republic with 16 tallies, including 2 aces, the same ones as Puerto Rico’s Torres. The Dominican team tried to get back in the third set but failed the decisive points and surrendered a total of 24 units to their rivals.

Puerto Rican blocking game was key in the first two sets and in the end totalized a 13-2 advantage.

For Puerto Rican captain, Hector Soto, this win was pure gas to go ahead in the tournament.  “We dominated at this in the first two sets in this match. We made a whole difference in comparison with the first day of competition, our blocking game worked better and were more regular when attacking,” he remarked.

“We are a step closer. Obviously is a very important victory, and now it depends on the match between Dominican Republic and Cuba for tomorrow to know in which place we finished in our pool, but obviously this helps us in our aspiration to qualify to the World League,” coach David Aleman mentioned.

“I think we made mistakes and we had lack of decisión in some plays, that took us to a loss. We were distracted and could not be accurate in the most important moments like the ones we had in the third set,” said Dominican captain Wilfrido Hernandez Encarnación.

“We need to improve in many aspects of the game, but mostly on the way we finish plays that can be key points when we lead in the score,” Dominican Republic coach Jose Alvarez Cutiño stated.