Hosts Mexico downs USA in a five-set thriller – Volleyball News
Mexico Boys’ U 19 national volleyball team edged out visiting US squad in five sets 3-2 (24-26, 25-23, 25-19, 23-25, 15-10) on Wednesday.
City of Tijuana in Mexico provided the backdrop for the NORCECA Continental Championship match. The US team put up a great effort, but could not manage to break the winning streak of hosts. Mexican team showed remarkable consistency and bagged third straight
win in the competition. Victory also enabled Mexico to book a slot in the Final Round of the competition. Home team captured the first two matches in straight sets, sending US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico to loss. Nevertheless, they had a tough time to deal
with ambitious Americans in the third match, which spanned over five tiring sets.
Mexican top-gun Fey Kupono displayed a good action on the net. He made good use of his hands and notched-up match-high 22 points. Likewise, his teammate Alexis Garay did amazingly well and contributed 21 points to Mexico’s score. Furthermore, the duo of
Mauricio López and Sebastian Castro supported home team with 17 and 10 points, respectively.
For USA, the captain Christian Blough and Lee Smith fought bravely. They added 12 points apiece. Mitchell Penning of USA also went into double-figures and contributed 11 points, in the loss.
The visiting team caught a good start in the match and claimed opening stanza of the match. The hosts made a comeback and added back-to-back wins in the following two sets. Americans saved the match points by winning fourth set, but fell to Mexico in the
final set of the game.
Daniel Friend, the American Coach, called it a close competition. He stressed that too many unforced mistakes of his team caused the failure.
His counterpart from Mexico Oscar Licea shared his views in the following manner, “USA is a very well ordered team. Anybody could win, but fortunatelly the match decided on our side, and also we had an extra player: the fans. They supported us a lot, but
we have to calm down keep working and also have to avoid losing our mind. I am very proud of these guys”
“We fought very hard and everybody in the team is very glad for this victory, but now we have to be prepared and think about our next match, probably one more time against USA,” declared Mexico’s captain Mauricio Lopez.
USA captain Christian Blough acknowledged that Mexico played better to win the match. He congratulated them for victory.
With impeccable 3-0 record in the first round, Mexico advanced directly to the semi-finals. The USA, on the other hand, will have to appear in the quarterfinals slated for Thursday, in order to qualify for the semis of the U 19 NORCECA Continental Championship.
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