Daly Santana plays key role in Puerto Rico 3-0 over Mexico

CAÑETE, Peru, June 18, 2017 – Led by the powerful attacks from the back row by wing spiker Daly Santana, Puerto Rico achieved its second victory in Pool A by defeating Mexico 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-15) at Lolo Fernandez Coliseum of Cañete, site of the XVI Women´s Volleyball Pan American Cup by Movistar 2017.

Santana collected a match-high 19 points, followed by Marie Victoria with 14. On the Mexican side the best scorer was the captain Andrea Rangel who had 12 points in the losing cause.

The pressure by the Mexican team caused Puerto Rico to commit 20 unforced errors while reducing theirs to 17.

However, the team coached by Javier Gaspar got the win building an advantage in all the fundaments: Attacks (37-26), blocking (11-6) and aces (9-2).

Natalia Valentin, Captain of Puerto Rico: “I think we had a good collective game. I wanted to use more my middle players and that is something I need to continue working. But I am going out happy because we won and we have a lot of space for improvement.”

Andrea Rangel, Captain of Mexico: “We had a good start but the serves from the other team affected our game because is very offensive and it took us out of the match. For moments we made many mistakes but we also had good rallies and that is what w are going to try to do in the next match.”

Javier Gaspar, Coach of Puerto Rico: “Very glad with the victory but not satisfied with the way we are playing. Mexico did cause a lot of problems with their serves and complicated the plan to use more the middle players. We have to continue ramping our game level.”

Ricardo Naranjo, Coach of Mexico: “I think that for some moments we were able to play at the same level against a team with much more experience than us. Our mistakes in defense and reception had to do with the losing of some important rallies. However we finished with a junior player as setter and I think is a positive thing to have her playing at this level in a fair way. I think that is an achievement for the Mexican volleyball and me personally, also”.