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CALI, Colombia, December 4, 2021.
- Peru progressed into the gold medal match
against Brazil, following their 3-1 (20-25,
25-19, 23-25, 20-25) semifinal victory in the
women’s volleyball tournament at the I Junior
Pan American Games Cali-Valle 2021 at
Evangelista Mora Coliseum.
Colombia struggled to comeback
after winning the first set and overcoming
Peru’s tough defense. Unfortunately Colombia
suffered the loss of their leading scorer Ana
Karina Olaya after fainting when her team was
falling 19-20 in the fourth set and had to be
taken to the hospital.
Colombia will play for the bronze
medal against Argentina who lost earlier to
Brazil.
Peru led 57-47 in attacks and 7-2
in aces; while Colombia held a comfortable 14-9
margin in blocks. Outside hitters Ysabella
Sanchez and Kiara Montes topped Peru’s scorers
with 18 points apiece, opposite hitter Thaisa Mc
Leod followed with 15 points and middle blocker
Maricarmen Guerrero contributed with 10 points.
Colombian Ana Karina Olaya led
all scorers with 22 points, joined by middle
blockers Valerin Carabali and Darlevis Mosquera
with 12 and 10 points respectively.
Francisco Hervas, head coach of Peru: “This
is of great joy added to the fact we are coming
out of a difficult and hard time, we needed this
happiness. This is a reward for all the work the
girls have been doing every day, leaving their
lives and they were missing this. We are so
happy especially for them and for Peruvian
volleyball which we represent. I have a team
with great heart, that leaves all they have on
the court and we played a really difficult match
against Colombia, there’s no doubt of their
effort, but we are very satisfied because this
is what we want, to grow as a team, the harder
the matches, the better. With more pressure we
grow”.
Yadhira Anchante, setter of Peru: “We
owe the victory to our team effort, last night
we talked and said all we needed to say and how
we could support each other on the court because
that’s the most important thing and that gives
us strength. We needed to be prepared mentally
and that’ what we spoke about, it worked. We
already faced Brazil and this will be a rematch,
and we were really close to winning and tomorrow
we are going out with all we got”. |
