Dominicans and Venezuelans join Final Four

CARTAGENA, Colombia, July 27, 2006.- Dominican Republic and Venezuela joined Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Final Four round of the Men’s Volleyball Tournament at the Central American and Caribbean Games.

Led by 21 and 20 points respectively from Jose Caceres and Elvis Contreras, the Dominicans defeated host Colombia 3-0 (25-23, 25-19,25-19) and Luis Diaz was the main offensive force of Venezuela with 21 points in the triumph over Mexico 3-0 (25-17, 25-19 y 26-24).

Dominican Republic will play against Puerto Rico in the semi finals while Venezuela will meet Cuba. Colombia and Mexico will play for the fifth position.

“This match represents some kind of a wake-up call after our worst match last night against Cuba,” said Contreras.

“Tomorrow, against Puerto Rico, I think we are going to have another good match. We are two teams pretty evened and the one who makes lesser errors will win the match, so we need to go out with a great level of concentration.”

Liberman Agamez was the top scorer for Colombia with 18 points, and Jorge Payan added 11.

Carlos Tejeda and Fredy Cedeno each had 10 points joining Diaz in the Venezuelan attack.

“The first two sets were decisive to take Mexico out of its game. Our guys are finding out the rhythm and we are prepared for the best,” said Eliseo Ramos, the coach of Venezuela.

“No we go against Cuba, a team you cannot make many errors against, but we will go out with our strong serves because against Cuba you can not use soft serves,” said Ramos, a former coach of Team Cuba.

In the match for the seventh place, Trinidad & Tobago edged Barbados in four sets by score of 25-23, 30-28, 25-27, 25-17.

Nolan Tash led Trinidad & Tobago with 27 points, Marc Honore added 19 and Ryan Mahadeo made 10. Fabian Coz and Reniel Grace had 19 and 13 points and Elwy Okley had 12 for Barbados.