Mexico defeats Dominicans in five, go to finals

TIJUANA, Mexico, July 7 2011 - Mexico came from behind to defeat Dominican Republic 3-2 (19-25, 25-12, 18-25, 25-23, 15-5) advancing to the U-18 Girls’ Volleyball Pan American Cup gold medal match against Argentina on Friday. Dominican Republic will face Peru in the battle for the third place.

Mexico’s Samantha Bricio finished with 23 and Alejandra Isiordia with 22. Dominican Brayelin Martinez finished with 25 points while Pamela Soriano made 21.

Mexico came back on the second set, and won a very tough fourth one extending the match to five sets.

“This match was very important for us. We could have won easily but didn’t give our best. It was a very tough and close match, and Mexico never gave up,” Dominican captain Soriano said.

“We were very relaxed at the beginning, but then recovered and did our best. When we played the fifth set I said it is now or never,” Alicia Castro, captain of Mexico, noted.

“They knew how to get back on track and we didn’t know how to apply our tactical idea,” Dominican Wilson Sanchez said about the Dominican team.

“We have faced each other many times, sometimes you are up and suddenly you are down, we fought till the end and will be preparing more intensively for the World championship”, concluded Victor García, coach of Mexico.