Mexico claims last NORCECA ticket to the 2015 Grand Prix

PACHUCA, Mexico, June 17, 2014 – Hosts Mexico crushed Costa Rica 3-0 (25-10, 25-22, 25-17) to claim the last NORCECA ticket to the 2015 FIVB World Grand Prix in the penultimate day of competition of the XIII Women’s Volleyball Pan American Cup in Pachuca.

Mexico and Colombia, winners over Peru earlier on the day, will meet on Wednesday for the seventh place while the Peruvians and the Costa Ricans will determine the ninth position. Trinidad & Tobago finished eleventh.

The home side had its captain Andrea Rangel as the most productive player with 17 points, backed by the contribution of Lizbeth Sainz (11) and Dulce Carranza (10).

For Costa Rica, their leader Angela Willis was the top scorer with 13 points, and already recovered from a finger injury that kept her on the sidelines in two matches of the preliminary round.

Jorge Azair, coach of Mexico, said: “We were focused and working hard during the week. We knew the Costa Ricans could show resistance. In previous years we played matches pretty leveled, even with victories for them, but now we had to secure staying in the Grand Prix.”

“The girls have played very well. We won against Peru, Canada and Trinidad & Tobago, and lost in close matches with Cuba and the Dominicans. They have improved a lot but now we have to reinforce the physical part, which is very important.”

Horacio Bastit, the Argentinean coach of Costa Rica was disappointed. “We played bad practically in all the actions. We didn’t respect the game plan. Tomorrow we will go for the ninth place but the expectations were not that. We didn’t achieve the goal of qualifying to the Grand Prix, a dream Costa Rica has never realized.”