Puerto Rico wins tough battle to Mexico

FORT LAUDERDALE, United States, July 26, 2016.- Puerto Rico won a tough battle to Mexico 3-2 (25-22, 23-25, 25-20, 19-25, 15-7) at day one of the NORCECA Women’s U-20 Continental Championship at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Puerto Rico stormed past Mexico in the tie-break, nothing like the rest of the match while both teams battled strong keeping the scores always close and sets going back and forth. Mexico struggled in in the end trying narrow Puerto Rico’s lead.

Puerto Rico held a considerable advantage in serves 11-7 and in blocks 7-5, while Mexico had advantage 54-52 in spikes. Both committed similar unforced errors, Puerto Rico with 34 and Mexico had 37.

Several players scored double digits.  Ivania Ortiz lead the way for Puerto Rico with 21 points, Alejandra Negron added 15 points, while Dariana Hollingsworth and Joscelyn Coronel added 10 points apiece. On Mexico’s side, Sirenia Gomez and Kathya Garcia scored 15 points apiece, Karina Flores added 13, and Yerania Guitierrez along with Karla Mireles collected 10 points each.

Wednesday’s group B actions feature Puerto Rico playing against the host USA and Mexico faces French St. Martin.

Captain Andrea Fuentes of Puerto Rico said “our energy was much better in the fifth set because there was a lot to lose; we all snapped out and finished with a positive result”.

Coach Juan Cartagena of Puerto Rico said “we focused a lot in the end, as expected in the entire match. Our lack of concentration cost us the two sets we lost. I am satisfied with the result but not the way the girls performed, we just finished well a tournament and some of the players, like Dariana was out of her game”.

“This is a difficult start, there were ups and downs, maybe because it was the first match and we were nervous. As the tournament develops we will improve, I trust my team and I know we will do better” said Mexican Kathya Garcia.

Coach Mario Rodriguez of Mexico sad “the match was even, we lost focus in the end. Our receiving wasn’t constant, causing weakness in our attack. My team did a good effort; there are things to improve if we want to stand out in the competition”.