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GUADALAJARA, Mexico, August 26, 2021.- Defending
champions Dominican Republic won pool B opener
to Costa Rica 3-2 (25-11, 25-21, 25-15) at the
Women’s NORCECA Continental Championship in
Arena Astros in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Dominican Republic dominated by a huge 12-3
margin in blockings, 9-4 in serves and 29-24 in
attacks, while limiting their errors to a total
of 17 against 25 committed by Costa Rica.
Costa Rica’s momentum in set two reaching 21 all
was easily cut off by Dominican Republic’s
experienced players.
Dominican head coach Marcos Kwiek took the
opportunity to use his entire roster with
opposite hitter Galia González leading all
scorers with 16 points on 9 attacks, 3 blocks
and 4 serves; performing in the first two sets,
Prisilla Rivera contributed with 9 points and
middle blocker Geraldine Gonzalez tallied 8
points.
Costa Rica’s leading scorer was outside hitter
Tamara Espinoza with 8 points all in kills,
followed by outside hitter Tatiana Sayles and
middle blocker Mariana Rodríguez with 7 and 6
points respectively.
Dominican Republic’s (1-0) next opponent is
Trinidad and Tobago, and Costa Rica (0-1) goes
against Mexico.
Marcos Kwiek, Coach of Dominican Republic: “A
debut is always a debut, it's slow; what we need
to do is keep focused, trying to reach our
goals. We know our level of play and today we
gave the whole team an opportunity to get into
the event, from there move forward”.
Mariana Rodríguez, Captain of Costa Rica: “It’s
a privilege to play against a team like the
Dominican Republic; it’s a great opportunity
that not every team has. We had a good game;
obviously our margin of errors tends to be
higher against teams like this because the
pressure is too much. We hope to keep growing to
get to the matchup against Trinidad and Tobago
which we’re looking forward to winning in this
competition”.
Pablo Acuña, Coach of Costa Rica: “The teams’
effort was good, considering that our group is
U23. Today a 15 year old player made her debut
pretty well and we are building a good future
for Costa Rica. For a team like us, Dominicans,
no matter the age-group, are always of a higher
level and that is why we are satisfied with
today’s performance; we hope to improve for the
next matches”. |
