Good start for Mexico at the NORCECA U19 Boys’ Continental Championship – Volleyball News
Mexico Boys’ Youth Volleyball Team posted 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-10) win over US Virgin Islands (ISV) in the opening match of 2012 NORCECA U19 Boys’ Continental Championship on Monday, July 2.
Mexican city Tijuana hosted the match, which served as a competitive advantage for the home team. Mauricio López of Mexico emerged as the only player in the match, who went into double-figure score. He charted 10 points via successful attack-attempts and aces. His teammate Alexis Garay further helped the team with valuable nine points.
Aseah Thomas and Chandler Blaschka struggled for ISV squad. They added 6 and 5 points, respectively.
Equipped with the support of local fans, Mexican team made a strong entry in the match. Home mentor gave a perfect plan to his players, which helped Mexico to grab success. US Virgin Islands, on the other hand, showed good fighting spirit in the early half of the set, but gradually lost momentum. US Virgin Islands captain Nayib Gonzalez used different tactics, in order to catch up with the opponent. Nonetheless, the pumped-up Mexicans remained ahead in the game and secured first set of the match with 25-17 on board.
Second frame was not different from the previous one. Mexico continued with hard-hitting and launched power on the visitors. Eventually, second set also came successful for Mexico as the scoreboard showed the final score of 25-16.
In the third set, home team carried the same momentum and controlled the operations of the game. ISV could only score 10 points and suffered the loss in straight sets.
The winning coach Oscar Licea, shared his views after the match. He said: “We are ina very difficult pool, with very tough opponents like USA and Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands was a rival we didn’t really know, they made us play harder and I want to congratulate them, that forced us to make some adjustements.”
The skipper of Mexican team Mauricio Lopez commented: “This first match helped us a lot to get into rythm. We were a little bit nervious, because it is not the same to practice by yourself on a court we have done so many times, and start a real competition”.
Mexican team will return to action in the next match against Puerto Rico on Tuesday. Likewise, US Virgin Island will take on the US team. Check back for more news and updates.
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