Dominican Republic gets into U20 Cup Semifinal

LIMA, Peru, May 15, 2019 - Success again smiled to the Dominican Republic team that won by straight sets to Puerto Rico (25-15, 25-11, 25-22) and is the first team to qualify to the semifinal of the V U-20 Pan American Cup - Herbalife Cup.

The Dominican team closed the first two sets with comfortable advantage thanks to the power of their attack by the corners. For the third quarter, Puerto Rico managed to complicate them with their service, but the Dominican captain Natalia Martinez -top scorer with 14 points- would be responsible for closing the last set in favor of her country.

Dominican did an outstanding job in deactivating the main offensive Puerto Rican weapons, achieving superiority in blocking (10-4), also had advantage in attack (40-23) and service (4-2). The unforced errors were: 19 by the winner and 21 by the loser.

Natalia Martinez, captain of the Dominican Republic: We thank God for the victory, we are very happy to advance to the semifinals and we will continue fighting until we get the gold medal.

Sofía Victoriá, captain of Puerto Rico: We had many mistakes and with their experience they knew how to take advantage of them. However, we remain in competition and will work on our failures to win in the next stage.

Dominican Republic closes the first phase with 10 points winning first against Chile and today over Puerto Rico; and on Friday, May 17 will play the semifinals. For its part, Puerto Rico will play the quarterfinals scheduled for Thursday 16.