Dominican Republic taste first victory
Canada, September 17, 2007,
As expected this was going to be a well-fought battle between
these two teams. Mexico a team looking to work their way back into
the international ranks while the Dominican have established
themselves as a top ranked team, however, have suffered this
season with injuries and are here with a mixed team of experience
and youth.
It was a tight race right from the first whistle with the
Dominican Republic holding a narrow 16-13 lead at the second
technical time out. They would further that lead thanks to the
powerful attack of their team Captain Cosiri Rodriguez. It was
enough to take the first set 25-17.
The Dominican used the momentum in set one opening an 8-5 lead,
but Mexico responded to tie the set 10 and then go up buy one to
lead 16-15 at the second technical time out. The Dominican had an
immediate response as they quickly went up 21-17 forcing a Mexican
time out. This time Mexico didn’t have a solution and as a result
the Dominican took set two 25-19.
The Dominican’s can out swinging in the third set going up 6-1 on
a deflated looking Mexican team. The maintained their lead up 8-3
at the first Technical time out. While Mexico continued to
struggle, the Dominican could feel that victory was near. They
extended their lead to 16-8 and never really looked back taking
the final set 25-13.
Bethania De La Cruz De Pena led the Dominican Republic with 19
points on 17 kills and 2 service aces while Migdalel Ruiz led
Mexico with 6 points on 4 kills, 1 block and 1 service ace.
Post Match Quotes:
Team Dominican Republic
Cosiri Rodriguez – Captain
“Our goal here is to continue to work hard and keep improving. We
to are rebuilding, so we are trying to prepare the team as best as
possible with a fixed goal, which is the Olympic qualification. I
have seen Mexico improve a lot from the last competition and I see
many new faces on the team. We are going to try and reduce the
errors every game and take advantage of our opponents errors in
order to improve our game.”
Miguel Cruz Beato - Head Coach
“First I always thank God for every victory. I think the team
since we are adjusting to new players we were not able to maintain
the rhythm that I wanted so we made errors, especially in the
counter attack. We were not able to block properly and I think
that as we go on in the tournament we will improve and will be
able to obtain the rhythm that we want. We know that at this event
that the experience of the player in important, but I have the
satisfaction that the new players had a chance to play and did an
honorable job.”
Team Mexico
Migdalel Ruiz – Captain
“It was a very difficult match for us as we are at a point where
we are re-building out team, so we really only have 3 experienced
players on this team. It is again very nice to play against the
Dominican Republic so we can learn as much as we can. We will
continue to work hard in preparation for the Olympic qualification
tournament in December, this is the most important thing for us.”
Macario Gonzalez - Head Coach
“We are always learning from our fellow coaches. I see something
very important, that all the teams here are rebuilding. Mexico has
not had the reserve to feed from that it takes to re-build a team.
So this has given us an opportunity with the players we have now
to play these stronger teams. I don’t mean to imply that this
event is not important, after the Pan American games in Brazil and
the youth World Championships this group has only 5 days training
for this event, so I am very happy with the result. We have about
4 or 5 more players that are ready to play internationally, but
due to the time constraints we were not able to bring them here.
This tournament is a learning experience for us and for me to
adjust the re-building we are doing”
