Dominicans win silver medal at AAU Festival

ORLANDO, Florida, June 22, 2014 – The Dominican Republic’s U-18 Girls National team completed its preparation going to the NORCECA Continental Championship in Costa Rica from June 24-29 with an outstanding showing at the 41st Annual AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships in Orlando, Florida where finished with the silver medal of the International Division behind Brazil.

This is the first year AAU incorporated an international division in its line-up of championship events with eight teams from around the world brought in for the inaugural competition – Brazil, Dominican Republic, Croatia, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Peru and Slovenia.

The Dominicans opened the event losing a close battle to eventual champions Brazil in three sets (18-25, 25-17, 17-15) but the team coached by Brazilian Alexandre Ceccato and assisted by Cristian Cruz was not ready to fold up putting a vigorous reaction after the initial loss.

They came back to win six consecutive matches over Croatia (25-23, 25-20), Peru (25-17, 25-20), Israel (25-21, 25-17), Germany (25-6, 25-15), Slovenia (25-17, 25-12) and Mexico (25-18, 25-18).

In the championship match against Brazil once again, the Dominicans jumped into a 3-0 lead only to see the Brazilians tying up at 10 all. It was seesaw match the rest of the first set. Brazil opened a 24-20 gap but the Dominicans closed in at 24-23 before the South Americans scored to claim the first set.

In the second set, the Brazilians built a 16-8 margin. The Dominicans mounted a big reaction to shorten the distance before falling 25-22.

The Dominican Republic team consisted of Carolina Carrera, Yokaty Flores, Maria Yvett Garcia, Gaila Gonzalez, Angelica Hinojosa, Pamela Jorge, Jineiry Martínez, Larysmer Martínez, Natalia Martínez, Massiel Matos, Vielka Peralta, Lisbeth Rosario and Willihana Sanchez. Agripina Martinez was the team manager with Edgar Arias Sibilia as therapist.

The AAU Volleyball program conducts the AAU Junior National Volleyball Championships annually at ESPN Wide World of Sports and Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL.  With over 1,900 teams, the event has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest volleyball tournament in the world.  From June 17-24, 2014, a total of 29 divisions from ages 10 to 18 were contested during the Championships.