Puerto Rico beat Venezuela in men’s play at Colombia 

CARTAGENA, Colombia, July 24, 2006.- Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba and Colombia came out winners during the first day of play in the men’s volleyball tournament at the XX Central American and Caribbean Games.

The most exciting victory was the one of Puerto Rico over Venezuela in four sets (25-21, 27-25, 29-31, 32-30) lasting 2 hours and 21 minutes. Cuba beat Mexico 3-1, and Dominican Republic and Colombia defeated Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados 3-0 respectively.

Hector Soto led five Puerto Ricans in double figures with 22 points. Victor Rivera and Luis Rodriguez added 17 and 13 points respectively and Rene Estevez and Jose Rivera each had 12. For Venezuela, Tomas Ereu and Luis Diaz each had 18 points and Ivan Marquez added 12.

“It is a big victory for us,” said Soto. “This win increases our chances of finishing in first place in our pool because Venezuela is one of the strong teams in our bracket.”

Cuba, the favorite to win the gold medal, had four players in double figures in the win over Mexico 25-20, 18, 25, 25-19, 25-23.

Osmany Juantorena and Odelvis Dominicano had 12 points apiece while Yasser Portuondo and Michael Sánchez each had 11.

“We know Mexico was going to play as hard as anybody can, so we went out using all our resources, mainly our serves that at the end they couldn’t control,” said Roberto Garcia, the Cuban coach.

The Dominicans won by score of 25-22, 25-14, 25-18 and Elvis Contreras and Jose Caceres were the leading scorers with 12 and 10 points respectively.

“We entered the court playing defensively at the beginning until we caught our rhythm,” said Julio Frias, the Dominican coach. “In the next matches we should improve, especially in our serves.”

Finally, Colombia won by score of 25-15, 25-15 y 25-14, with Liberman Agamez and Johan Estrada as the best scorers with 14 and 10 points.