Dominican Republic storm past St. Lucia

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, June 25, 2014- Dominican Republic stormed past St. Lucia 3-0 (25-4, 25-2, 25-4) in their debut at the Girls’ U-18 NORCECA Continental Championship on Wednesday.

The winners held a huge advantage of 39-2 in spikes and 14-0 in service points, showing superiority over St. Lucia who now has a 0-22in-loss record in Pool C.

Dominican Republic relied mainly on the performance of opposite Massiel Matos, who contributed 4 points, 11 kills and 3 aces; and outside hitter Natalia Martinez who added 13 points all kills.

“We focused on not making too many mistakes, it’s important to debut with a victory because the team feels more solid, but not over confident,” Dominican Captain Yokaty Perez said.

“I believe we didn’t play as bad as yesterday; we had better reception. I want us to concentrate in the positive regardless the loss and encourage the team to work harder,” St Lucia’s Captain Skye Mondesir said.

Alesandre Ceccato, Brazilian coach of Dominican Republic, expressed: “It’s harder to motivate the players when the match is not as challenging as others, the concentration is harder to maintain. We will study our errors to be prepared to face Puerto Rico tomorrow”.

St. Lucia’s coach, Keam Charlery said he saw improvement in his team. “The reception and defense was better, but today the attack was off. We do not concentrate on the result, but on the learning experience for our own growth”.