Dominican Republic advances to semifinals and GP 2011

TIJUANA, Mexico, June 24, 2010 – Dominican Republic advanced to the semifinals of the Women’s Volleyball Pan American Cup and also earned a ticket to next year’s FIVB World Grand Prix by defeating Puerto Rico in straight sets (25-21, 25-23, 25-23) on Thursday. The Dominicans will play USA on Friday’s semifinals.

The match finished with consecutive yellow cards showed to both teams after several warnings.

Prisilla Rivera and Annerys Vargas paced Dominican Republic with 13 and 11 points respectively. Milagros Cabral added 9 and Altagracia Mambru and Lisvel Eve contributed with 8 points. Puerto Rican Sarai Alvarez led all the players with 22 points.

“It was our first 3-0 victory but it wasn’t our best match of the competition. “Our rhythm was slow,” Cabral said. “Otherwise we are happy with advancing to the semifinals and getting the ticket to the Grand Prix.”

“We achieved our first goal of qualifying to the Grand Prix and now we can go after one of the medals,” Marcos Kwiek said. “Puerto Rico battled without libero and without some of their main players. It is difficult to play up to your capacity when you look to the other side and don’t see a strong team even though the Puerto Ricans fought hard.”