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DURANGO, Mexico, August
19, 2021.-
Mexico improved their record 2-0 defeating
Puerto Rico 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-18) in
pool A at the Men’s NORCECA Continental
Championship in Durango, Mexico.
Led by outside hitter Josué López with 20 points
on 14 kills, 3 blocks and 3 aces, Mexico came
back from losing the first set and snatching an
important win to remain the only unbeaten team
in pool A.
Also contributing in Mexico’s victory, opposite
Diego Gonzalez contributed with 16 points all on
kills and outside hitter Jorge Hernández
collected 11 points on 8 kills and 3 blocks.
Opposite Gabriel García led Puerto Rico with 18
points on 15 attacks and 3 aces, followed by
middle blocker Pedro Nieves and outside hitter
Pedro Molina with 7 points each.
Despite allowing 40 points on unforced errors,
Mexico’s 12-1 huge margin in blocks was crucial,
along with 48-40 advantage in attacks and 6-4 in
serves. Puerto Rico limited their errors to 29
points.
Josué López, top scorer of Mexico: “The
difference between the first set and the rest of
the match was our serves, they were lazy and we
also committed receiving errors. We were able to
make some damage with our serves from the second
set further and that helped us a lot. Tomorrow
we close pool-play and our goal is to finish
first, we will work hard to beat Canada, and we
are not giving up”.
Jorge Azair, Coach of Mexico: “Puerto Rico
started serving really strong in the first set
and we weren’t able to respond. We settled down,
we didn’t ask them to receive perfectly, we
adjusted to their best shots and we solved with
our outside hitters, and we also responded with
serves. I am really glad for this group, they
are really young and proving they can go far
doing important things”.
Gabriel García, top scorer of Puerto Rico:
“Mexico improved after the first set; we were
looking to find our rhythm for moments but
things didn’t turn in our favor. We have won win
and one loss, that makes come down from our
cloud and keep us settled, humble and focused on
analyzing this game and find out what went
wrong”.
Mexico (2-0) resumes pool-play on Friday against
Canada (1-1) and Puerto Rico (1-1) facing
Trinidad and Tobago (0-2). |
