USA wins NORCECA U20 title and qualifies to the FIVB World Championship

AGUASCALIENTES, Mexico, June 23, 2018.- United States beat Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-20, 25-11, 25-20) to win the Women’s NORCECA U20 Championship in Aguascalientes and qualifies to the 2019 FIVB age-group World Championship.

This is United States’ seventh NORCECA title; in a back to back title match against Dominican Republic who won the past edition. 

In the beginning both teams were intense offensively; with Skyler Fields and Molly Phillips holding off Dominicans Natalia Martinez and Madeline Guillen. It was a matter of time when the US managed continuous blocking with Madison Kubik and Phillips controlling Dominican Republic’s offense and ripping their back row defense. The US had a remarkable second set with an ongoing party of points leaving their opponents without resources to recover from in the third and final set.

United States outclassed Dominican Republic with a huge 14-5 margin in blocking, 31-24 margin in attacks and 5-2 in aces. The US scored on 25 opponent errors while committing 20 of their own.

United States’ leading scorers were: middle blocker Molly Phillips with 13 points, including 7 outstanding blocks; wing spiker Madison Kubik with 13 points, including 9 kills and 2 blocks; Skyler Fields scored 9 points and Logan Eggleston added 8. Wing spiker Natalia Martinez with 11 points was Dominican Republic’s top scorer.

Logan Eggleston captain of USA: “I am so excited, I’m so proud of our team, we played so hard tonight. I am so happy right now. We came out really strong and Dominicans weren’t expecting that. They had to be intimidated; we came out working together, being good teammates”.

Keegan Cook head coach of USA: “We played just the way we wanted to play the whole tournament at the right time; we did a good job especially against a really good team and a special outside hitter tonight did a nice job against number 8. The whole game we were steady. We always thought we could win, we have a lot of respect for Dominican Republic and two years ago we were in the same position, up by 2-0 and they came back and beat us, so the motto was it’s over until it’s over”.

Wagner Pacheco head coach of Dominican Republic: “United States played perfectly; they served well and killed us. United States hadn’t played this way, everything worked well for them and for mi nothing worked out. I have a really good team, we advanced to the title match playing strong, hard and we stood up against a great opponent; I am happy with my team”.