Puerto Rico beats Guatemala to remain unbeaten

MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico, July 19, 2010 – Puerto Rico overwhelmed  Guatemala in consecutive sets (25-8, 25-14, 25-12) and improved to a 2-0 record in Pool B of the women’s volleyball tournament of the XXI Central American and Caribbean Games. The winners had a huge advantage in the blocking (8-0) and serving aces (10-1) departments. Karina Occasio led Puerto Rico with 11 points and Sarai Alvarez added 9. The foursome of Stephanie Enright, Aurea Cruz, Alexandra Oquendo and Sheila Ocasio totaled 7 points apiece.

“Our goal was to minimize the errors and we did it and also to improve the coordination for our fast attack,” Puerto Rican coach Yarelis Rodriguez said. “We still need to improve our blocking and reduce our errors in the serves.”

“Tomorrow we have a very important game against Mexico for the ticket to the semi finals,” Puerto Rican Vilmarie Mojica said. “We defeated them 3-0 in the Pan American Cup recently and hope to do it again.”

“Their fast pace was too much for us,” Guatemalan Anneliesse Burmeister said. “We improved our reception and look forward to meet Nicaragua tomorrow.”