Dominican Republic finishes sixth at NORCECA

 

WINNIPEG, Canada, September 7, 2019 - A young Dominican team finished the 2019 NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship in Winnipeg, Canada, on a high note with a win over Guatemala.

 

The score was 3-1 (28-30, 25-13, 28-26, 25-19). The win puts the Dominican team in sixth place overall in the tournament.

 

Mario Emilio Frias led all scorers with 25 points, followed by Jonathon Mercedes with 23. Blocking was a factor for the Dominican side – 13 points compared with 7 for Guatemala.

 

Alexis Blanco had 21 points for the losing side while teammate Wagner Chacon had a tally of 17.

 

Dominican Republic, head coach, Jose Alexander Gutierrez: “Our goal was to maintain our sixth position. We thought maybe we could do better as a bonus, but it wasn’t possible. We look forward to more work ahead. This type of competition is very good for the young players – they grow up!”

 

Guatemala, player, Gerardo Paz: “I’m a little disappointed in this match.  We were able to get the first set, then I thought we could get the third for sure, but then we lost it. That brought us down. It was still a good tournament for us. We played well and we’re happy with that. Our goal was to beat the Dominican Republic, and we didn’t achieve that, but we played really good against some higher level teams, such as United States and Cuba, and we’re happy with that. Next year Guatemala hosts the Central American Cup and we are looking forward to preparing for that.”