Dominican Republic will play USA for the gold

CAGUAS, Puerto Rico, September 16, 2011 – Defending champions Dominican Republic advanced to the gold medal match of NORCECA Women’s Volleyball Championship after scoring a straight sets victory (25-16, 25-23, 25-22) over Puerto Rico on Friday night.

Bethania de la Cruz registered 19 points, including two blocks, to lead Dominican Republic. Milagros Cabral and Annerys Vargas each finished with 8 points. Sarai Alvarez and Aury Cruz charted 12 apiece for Puerto Rico.

The Dominicans held a 13-4 advantage in the blocking department with Cabral scoring a match-high 5 blocks. Puerto Rico gave away 25 points via errors to 13 by the winners.

“We prepared very well for this match and everything came out in our favor,” Dominican Cabral said. “We reached the finals which was our main goal. Now we will se what happens against United States.”

“Our serve and block was good tonight,” Dominican Republic’s Coach Marcos Kwiek said. “We have a very short time to study USA and we don’t know if Prisilla Rivera will be able to play.”

Vilmarie Mojica, the Captain of Puerto Rico, said: “We had problems with our reception in the first set and they executed some decisive one-on-one blocking at the end of the next two sets.”

“Milagros (Cabral) scored point 25 with a block in the second set and then scored two more blocks for points 23 and 24 in the third set,” Puerto Rico’s David Aleman said.