Dominican Republic stopped

impetuous of Mexico

HAVANA, Cuba, March 30, 2017 –The Dominican Republic closed brilliantly its performance by in the preliminary round by stopping the momentum of Mexico to finish undefeated in Pool C with a 3-1 (25-15, 25-18, 21-25, 25-9) victory for a direct pass to the semifinals of the IV Pan American U18 Girls’ Cup.

Displaying notable skills and solidness for the Continental champions Yaneirys Rodríguez was the best scorer with 21 points followed by her teammates Jazmín Guillen (17) and Liniannis Feliz Sena (14).

For the Mexican team, Amaya Guereca (16) and Esther Castro (14) stood out at the offensive.

Alexandre Ceccato, Brazilian coach of Dominican Republic: “It was a very good victory. The opponents know how to play. They are really dangerous, but it resulted in a very important test for us as we did not have Natalia Martinez who is rehabilitating from an injury.”

Ricardo Naranjo, coach of México: “At the playing level in this tournament, the one who makes more errors will not be able to get the triumph. That´s what happened to us in the first and fourth sets where we neither blocked nor were good at attack. Nevertheless we defeated them in one set and we are satisfied as they have learned much more and have qualified to the World Championship which was our first goal.”

Yaneirys Rodriguez, Dominican captain: “We fought up to the end. We lost the set because we were overconfident believing we were already the match winners. Nevertheless we reacted against a Mexican team with good quality.”

Amaya Guereca, a Mexican wing spiker: “I think we played really well, especially in the third set which we won. Unquestionably Dominicans have great blocking. It was what limited us in the fourth set, but we are happy with the world ticket.”