Dominican Republic falls to Colombia in Pan American Cup

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, July 17, 2024.-In a highly contested match, which made the audience vibrate, the Colombian team dominated the hosts from the Dominican Republic with a score of 3-1 (25-18, 28-26, 25-27, 29-27), in this 17th edition of the Men's Pan American Volleyball Cup that takes place in the National Volleyball Pavilion of the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center.

Colombia demonstrated its superiority in attacks 62-56, in blocks 14-12 and in serves 9-2.

Andres Piza was the top scorer for the Colombians with 19 points, followed by Daniel Apoza and Jharold Caicedo with 17 and 16 respectively. For the host team, the best was Héctor Cruz with 17, accompanied by Wilfrido Hernández with 15.

Carlos Osorio, coach of Colombia: A match that we knew was going to be very interesting for us, a match that was not going to be easy since the Dominican Republic is a team on the rise in a very interesting process in the men's team, we also knew that they were coming from finish a NORCECA Cup and they have been preparing in different parts so it was an important game for us to try to score more points.

José Gutiérrez, coach of the Dominican Republic: Colombia was a tough nut to crack, we had that in mind since they have just won bronze in the Pan American Games, our boys gave their all but there are aspects of the game that we have to improve, there is still a way to go and that experience is only given by constant practice and above all the game, the more we play with teams of this level, the better for our team since the level will increase.