Puerto Rico came out on top TTO in second win at Barranquilla

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia, July 29, 2018.- Puerto Rico came out on top Trinidad and Tobago 3-0 (25-11, 25-18, 25-19) in pool B of the men’s volleyball tournament at the 2018 Barranquilla XXIII Central American and Caribbean Games at Humberto Pareo Coliseum.

With a spectacular defense, Trinidad and Tobago edged Puerto Rico to work harder for their second victory in pool-play.

Trinidad and Tobago led the third set up to point 16, when Puerto Rico’s strong serves finally subdued their great effort.

Puerto Rico led 38-27 in kills, 4-3 in blocks and 9-1 in aces. Puerto Rico benefited from 24 opponent errors, allowing 17 points on their own.

Wing spiker Pablo Guzman topped Puerto Rico’s scorers with 9 points, on 6 kills and 3 of them in aces; Kevin Lopez chipped in with 7

points on kills. Eddie Rivera and Sequiel Sanchez scored 5 points apiece.  Brandon Legall led Trinidad and Tobago with 9 points on kills.

On the last day in pool-play, Puerto Rico will meet Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago faces Guatemala.

Puerto Rico’s top scorer, Pablo Guzman indicated “we have a good team, every one of us performs at a high level and we all wish to win, that was today’s basic factors to take the win. Trinidad and Tobago is a defensive team and we had to push harder with our serves, also adjusting our blocking because they were smacking our hands. We finish pool-play against Colombia and we are ready to face any team”.

The energy in the third set was a lot higher than the first two, and the guys that came off the bench, including myself, were fresh on the court; so the opposition didn’t really know how to read the attacks so I think that helped an early lead and close score” said Opposite Nicholas Prescott of Trinidad and Tobago. About tomorrow’s match against Guatemala he added “we have a history with them, we’ve done our homework and I think we have a great opportunity against them; this time we have a great chance with the team we brought here”.

Oswald Antonetti head coach of Puerto Rico said “we brought fourteen players, all of them with high level, with an average mature age and that allows us to keep a good level and give a good performance.  They have a very good libero, with high battling spirit and that is really good for the zone to have such energy in a team. They put us in a spot, a good place to compete. When we play against Colombia, it’s important to stick to our game plan, keep our character, our personality and play point by point”.

Coach Sean Morrison of Trinidad and Tobago expressed “in comparison to the level we played last night was totally different from the one we played today; we had too many errors, we gave the gap too wide and we didn’t play point for point. I can add we didn’t perform together; the main guys didn’t fire today, we tried to keep the game level using our bench players but Puerto Rico kept us on check”.