Peru win gold medal at U20 Final Four Cup

LIMA, Peru, October 19, 2014 – Fans in Peru had reasons to celebrate as their women’s junior national team won the gold medal in the U20 Women’s Final Four Gatorade Cup with a 3-1 (25-19, 25-21, 17-25, 25-17) victory over Argentina at Eduardo Dibos Coliseum on Sunday.

Once again Maguilaura Frias led the Peruvian offense with 17 points, followed by Angela Leyva and Coraima Gomez each with 13 points. Argentina’s Sol Piccolo finished with 15 points and Camila Hiruela had 14 in the loss.

The winners led in attacks (50-44) and in aces (7-2) with the losers had a slight advantage in the blocking category (9-8). Both teams had the same number of unforced errors with 27 apiece.

Martin Escudero, the Peruvian coach, said “it was a complicated match because Argentina has good blocking and attack, so we knew we had to stop them. Today the team played and functioned well. We didn’t have many errors. I am glad with the result and because the team is well. These competitions are good for our preparation.”

The captain Angela Leyva expressed her joy for the victory at home, saying “we came from bad moments but were able to lift our game and had a good match and did the things well. We went out to with all our strength because we knew Argentina was a tough opponent and didn’t allow Argentina to play their game.”

Guillermo Nazabal, coach of Argentina, admitted her team failed too much. “We exceeded our margin of errors, especially in our services that today didn’t work. Peru went out to play hard and we failed. Then we started to defend and were able to counter attack but couldn’t get the result. I congratulate Peru for a well deserved victory.”

Sol Piccolo, the captain of Argentina, commented: “Peru had a very good game, and we didn’t play well with many errors in the services and they took advantage of it and didn’t forgive us. They went out to play hard and we didn’t react. I congratulate Peru for their game today.”