Puerto Rico unbeaten at Men’s Pan American Cup
COLIMA, Mexico, June 17, 2019.- Puerto Rico remains unbeaten at
the XIV Men’s Pan American Cup after winning 3-1 (23-25, 25-14,
25-18, 25-15) to Trinidad and Tobago at the Mulfunctional
Auditorium in Colima, Mexico.
Trinidad and Tobago with a solid beginning surprised Puerto Rico
winning the first set. Puerto Rico’s recovery was fast,
improving in blocking and limiting their errors to lead a
comfortable second set. Puerto Rico finished with Trinidad and
Tobago’s hard work to keep their unbeaten pool B record.
Puerto Rico topped Trinidad and Tobago with 54-35 margin in
attack, 10-6 in blocks and 8-2 in aces. Puerto Rico committed
more errors than Trinidad and Tobago (29-26).
Puerto Rico used a balanced scoring attack with Pelegrin Vargas
(16pts), Kevin Lopez (15pts), Jonathan Rodriguez (12pts) and
Javier Rodriguez (12pts). Ryan Stewart scored 14 points, the
only player with double-figures for Trinidad and Tobago.
Pool B resumes on Tuesday with Puerto Rico (2-0) against host
Mexico (1-0) and Trinidad and Tobago (0-2) facing Peru (0-1).
Comments:
Kevin López, wing spiker Puerto Rico: “We were overconfident at
the start and during the match we had a better game plan
improving our strategy, keeping a firm blocking line so the
defense could execute and counterattack for scoring points”.
Ryan Stewart, top scorer Trinidad and Tobago: “We had
high-intensity in the beginning; we just went down, fluctuating
a lot. I think we had a pretty good game. We’ll rest and come
back tomorrow with all our guns ready to the match against
Peru”.
Oswald Antonetti, coach Puerto Rico: “This has been a long
summer, our technical/tactical consistency has been really
important, so we will come out from less to more with these
talented players. Most of them are newcomers because we are
playing our superior league back home, this is a promising
team”.
Gideon Dickson, coach Trinidad and Tobago: “It was a great
start, our intensity and reception went down; when that takes
place we tend to be reactive as supposed to be playing
aggressively. Going forward we must learn from that mistake,
jumping in with high intensity my team was truly tested”. |