Puerto Rico defeats Argentina to play for fifth place at Lima 2019

LIMA, Peru, August 9, 2019.- Puerto Rico defeated Argentina 3-1 (21-25, 25-16, 26-24, 25-24) to play for fifth place at the Lima 2019 Pan American Games being held at the Multisport Complex El Callao of Lima, Peru.

Puerto Rico finishes third place of pool B with 1-2 record to play for fifth place of the competition, while Argentina still advances into semifinals as second place; both wait for their respective opponents.

Puerto Rico held a 55-48 margin in kills, a sizeable 10-5 in blocks and both teams scored 3 points from serves. Argentina committed fewer errors (29-32) than Puerto Rico.

Paulina Prieto of Puerto Rico topped all scorers with 20 points on 17 kills and 3 aces; Stephanie Enright followed with 17 points and Aury Cruz chipped in with 13 points. Lucia Fresco led Argentina with 13 points, Yamila Nizetich finished with 12 and Elina Rodriguez with 11 points.

Comments:

Nomaris Velez, libero of Puerto Rico: “As a team we have been performing at a great level, the results don’t make us justice. Today is a good day to understand where we are and continue to learn, improve for future competitions. This victory is important mentally and emotionally speaking”.

José Mieles, Head coach of Puerto Rico: “We are proud more than anything. We are glad to have won; the team deserves it because our losses have been tough on them”.

Juieta Lazcano, captain of Argentina: “We are a team that needs more energy; we needed a bit more today and maybe we were too relaxed because we were already qualified to the next round”.

Hernán Ferraro, Head coach of Argentina: “Puerto Rico is a great team, they are coming with a lot of previous games like us, but today they showed they play well, they have great players. Our game level was lower than our previous matches”.