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Puerto Rico headed to FIVB U19 World Championship

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, May 25, 2022.- Puerto Rico is headed to the FIVB U19 World Championship after defeating host Guatemala 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-20) on Wednesday at the Boys  Pan American Cup.

Puerto Rico won pool A with 3-0 record and will play in Friday’s semifinals, which earned them one of the four vacancies to the age-group World Championship.  Guatemala, second place in pool A is set to play in quarterfinals against Chile who finished third in pool B.

The Caribbean team prevailed in every category, with a huge 37-16 margin in attacks, 6-1 in blocks and 8-2 in aces. Puerto Rico committed 37 errors and scored on 24 Guatemalan errors.

Puerto Rico’s offense was led by outside hitter Diego Lopez with 14 points form 13 attacks and one ace, outside hitter Victor Torres also contributed with 14 points on 11 kills and 3 blocks; and middle blocker Ramon Rosado collected 11 points on 7 kills and 4 aces.

Guatemala’s leading scorer was opposite hitter Ferdinando Gonzalez with 8 points.

Francisco Negron, Head Coach Puerto Rico: “Our goal as a team was to qualify to Worlds, now that we have, we must continue working hard and continue to improve. I think we have improved in reception, our offense has been consistent and not failed a lot during our three matches, but we still need to improve our serves”.

Ramón Rosado, Captain Puerto Rico: “We´ve worked hard to qualify to the World Championship, the group has been together over four months, and pieces have come together for our qualification. Our strength is our unity as a team, we’ve shown it when we fail, and we unite more among us and our coaches”.