Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico and Colombia  start with victories

CARTAGENA, Colombia, July 16, 2006.- Dominican Republic started the defense of the women’s volleyball crown at the XX Central American and Caribbean Games with a 3-0 (25-12, 25-22 y 26-24) victory over Venezuela.

In other matches, Cuba had to battle very hard to defeat Puerto Rico in four sets by score of 25-23, 17-25, 25-21, 25-18, Mexico beat Costa Rica 3-0 (25-12, 25-15 y 25-14) and host Colombia beat Barbados 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-19).

The spikes of Milagros Cabral and Nurys Arias along with the defense of middle blocker Cindy Rondon were key factors for the Dominican success.

Cabral had 12 points and Arias added 11, while Maria Jose Perez and Desiree Glod had 13 and 10 respectively for Venezuela.

“In this competition you can not take things easy,” said Dominican coach Miguel Beato Cruz. “It was not our best game but we could make the adjustments at the right time. Our game must improve starting tomorrow.”

The Cubans came from behind in the first set erasing a 21-23 deficit with a four-point rally led by the spikes of veteran Zoila Barros.

Nancy Carrillo was the top scorer of Cuba with spikes and serves good for 12 points, followed by the captain Yumilka Ruiz with 10. Aury Cruz led Puerto Rico with 17 points and Karina Ocasio added 15.

"It was a very intense match, and the Puerto Ricans gave us problems. It is a team that is growing up and it showed at the Pan American Cup when they beat Brazil,” said Felipe Calderon, the Cuban coach.

Meanwhile, the taller Mexicans dominated the game at the net and took advantage of continued unforced errors by Costa Rica’s reception.

“Our opponents can play better than that,” said Marco Heredia, the Mexican coach.

Bibi Candelas led Mexico with 12 points and Ana Mercado contributed with 10. Paola Ramírez scored 7 for Costa Rica.

Jessica Angulo scored 17 points for Colombia, including 12 spikes and Paula Cortes added 9. Shari Matthews led Barbados with 13 points.