Puerto Rico advances to semifinals at Boys’ U19 Pan Am Cup

MEXICALI, Mexico, July 14 2011.— Puerto Rico advanced to the semifinals of the Boys’ U19 Pan American Cup after defeating Trinidad and Tobago in the quarterfinal round 3-0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-18).

Edgardo Cartagena and Carlos Acosta topped with 10 for Puerto Rico. The same number of points were also achieved by Brandon Legall for Trinidad and Tobago. “We faced a very competitive team like Puerto Rico, it was difficult for us but never gave up”, said Ryan Thomas about the Trinidadian team.

“This was an interesting match for us that are trying to improve and work a little bit more as a joint team before the World Championship”, stated Puerto Rico’s Carlos Acosta.

Puerto Rico will match Mexico, in the semifinals. “We have played previously, last year at the Norceca championship. We won the medal and the pass to the World Championship, but it will be different this time and have to do the right things”, said coach Ramon Lawrence.

“We had limited time to prepare for this tournament, but we’ve tried to be stuck to our plan as much as possible”, mentioned David Camacho of Trinidad and Tobago, that was waiting for the loser team of the match between USA and Costa Rica to play the classification for 5th and 6th places.