Dominicans debut by defeating Costa Rica 3-0

LIMA, Peru, August 14, 2018 - Dominican Republic started with a victory in Pool B of the IV U23 Pan American Cup, defeating the Costa Rican team 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-11) ) at the Manuel Bonilla Coliseum in Miraflores.

The team led by Wagner Pacheco managed to make a big difference with the power of his attack, and although the sextet of Cesar Salas fought to defend each ball and took advantage of the unforced errors of the opponent; finally the Dominicans would be the winners.

The top attackers Vielka Peralta and Natalia Martinez contributed 12 and 10 points respectively, while the opposite Gaila González scored 11 points. In the rival team, Edya Espinoza and Ysayana Soto got the maximum of 4 marks.

The three-time champion of the Pan-American Cup showed a wide superiority in attack (47-14) and blocking (9-1), also exceeded in service (5-2). The winning team incurred 25 unforced errors, while the losers registered 14.

Costa Rica will play its next match in Pool B on Wednesday when it faces Colombia at 13:00 while at 17:00 Dominican Republic will face Mexico.

DT from the Dominican Republic, Wagner Pacheco: "The team went a bit cold on the court, in the first two sets maybe they were a bit confident but the important thing is that they could get into the rhythm and close the game. As the tournament progresses we will take more rhythm of the game, thinking of the final round."

Costa Rican coach César Salas: "It was hard to make our debut against the current champion, a team with a lot of physical power, but even though our team is smaller we tried to make our game, we made our combinations of planned attacks, we tried to complicate their defense with our serves and it worked for us in the first two sets, we were able to offer resistance but finally they knew how to impose their pace".