Puerto Rico stops Colombia in Pool A match

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, July 3, 2016 – Puerto Rico improved its win-loss record to 2-0 in Pool A of the XV Women’s Volleyball Pan American Cup following the straight-set (25-18, 25-17, 25-15) win over Colombia on Sunday.

Puerto Rico dominated all the scoring skills with advantages of 36-26 in attacks, 9-6 in blocks and 9-3 in service winners.

Stephanie Enright was the main offensive producer for Puerto Rico with 13 points, including four blocks and three aces, followed by Karina Ocasio with nine tallies. Natalia Valentin had four aces among her 6 points, and Alexandra Oquendo and Lynda Morales also totaled six.

Kenny Moreno led Colombia with 10 points and Melissa Rangel was next with seven.

“We wanted to improve from yesterday and we did it,” Enright said. “We improved as a team and received and served better.”

“It was a complicated match as we expect also for tomorrow’s match against the Dominican Republic,” said Colombian María Marín. “We made many mistakes but the team is improving.”

“Our goal is to qualify to next year’s world grand prix and get the chance to play those matches against good teams at level 3,” said Eduardo Guillaume. “The important matches to win for us are those against Mexico and Venezuela.”

“We reduced the errors after the first set and I rotated the players for second day in a row,” said Juan Carlos Nuñez, coach of Puerto Rico. “We served a lot better and got a good amount of points with our serves and blocking. I hope we can keep improving.”