Puerto Rico wins Pool B with perfect record

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, May 10, 2017. – Puerto Rico won Pool B with perfect record after beating Costa Rica 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-15) on the last day of pool-play of the U20 Women’s Pan American Cup in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Puerto Rico finished with 2-0 win-loss record and ten points, advancing directly into semifinals and Costa Rica will play for final classification places.

The Caribbean team performed with less energy than they usually do as Costa Rica’s spikers worked around their blockers. On interesting detail, all players from both sides performed tonight.

Puerto Rico held an overwhelming margin of 10-2 in blocking and advantage of 33-25 in spikes. Costa Rica scored six aces and Puerto Rico four. Puerto Rico benefited from 28 opponent errors and committed 20.

Puerto Rico’s top scorer was middle Loraine Lopez with 10 points, followed by opposite Dariana Hollingsworth scored 8 points. For the Central American team, Tamara Espinoza scored 11 points joined by opposite Mariana Rodriguez with 8 points.

Dariana Hollingsworth, Puerto Rico’s captain: “We performed carefully because we wanted to score the most amount of points as possible to advance into semifinals. We usually play faster and with more energy”.

Julio Meléndez, Puerto Rico’s Head Coach: “This wasn’t our best performance, Costa Rica worked hard and made things difficult for us, fortunately we finished first and moved into semifinals. We weren’t expecting Costa Rica to play so well with our blocking and with good reception; they put us in trouble”.

Mariana Rodríguez, Costa Rica’s captain: “On some level, the more experienced teams have a tendency to be over confident and we must take advantage using our own resources and playing steady. We executed our coaches’ game plan very well; we improve playing against Puerto Rico”.

Mario Romero, Costa Rica’s Head Coach: “We limited our errors comparing to our first match, we were focused on doing better. We put them in trouble with our serves. We studied Puerto Rico to work with their blockers because they are much higher than us. Playing against teams with higher level than ours makes us grow”.