Puerto Rico books ticket to Thailand

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, May 1, 2013. - Puerto Rico sealed the last berth to the FIVB Girls’ World Championship in Thailand with an overwhelming victory to host Guatemala by 3-0 (25-6, 25-13, 15-9)  as they won Pool B at the U-18 Girls Pan American Cup on Wednesday.

Puerto Rico showed dominance with a colossal advantage in service points by 20-1 and in blocking by 9-0. Patricia Montero and Karla Santos with 14 and 13 points respectively, were Puerto Rico’s best scorers. Estefanie Bethancourt was Guatemala’s best with 2 points.

In the quarterfinals on Thursday, Puerto Rico plays Peru and on the other side, Argentina faces Chile.

“Qualifying to the World Championship is a celebration I can’t explain, we reached our goal. Today our serves were aggressive and the job efficient” said Wilmarie Rivera of Puerto Rico.

Estefanie Bethancourtof Guatemala indicated “we battled the entire game and we’ll continue to do so, we are excited to play against teams of higher category”.

Juan Carlos Rodriguez coach of Puerto Rico said to be more than satisfied with their qualification “we came for this; it was hard work and a long preparation. We planned for fast rallies and it gave result as expected.”

“Congratulations to Puerto Rico, they are a strong team as well as the rest and Guatemala must take advantage of this opportunity to see our deficiencies and continue to work” expressed Julio Dominguez of Guatemala.