Mexican duo claims men’s title at the Toluca Beach Volleyball Tournament – Volleyball news
Mexico’s Juan Virgen and Lombardo Ontiveros totally profited from the home advantage and settled for gold-medal victory at the 2012 Toluca Beach Volleyball Tournament.
The final showdown of the 6th NORCECA Beach Circuit Tournament took place this past Sunday. Mexico University Campus hosted all the action and created an excellent sporty environment for the three-day competition.
In the final encounter, Mexicans were challenged by archrivals from Cuba. The pairing of Sergio Gonzalez and Karell Piña crossed ways with Virgen/Ontiveros. Both teams had a great urge to secure the top slot of the tournament. Nonetheless, only one of them could go up and marched away with gold. Taking full advantage of the familiar conditions, Mexican Virgen/Ontiveros settled for 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) victory and claimed the gold-ware. Cubans put up a valiant effort and used many different tactics, but could not dismantle the power of hosts. In the end, they had to be contended with the second-place finish.
Virgen and Ontiveros displayed convincing performance throughout the tournament. The two players had great chemistry between them, which helped them to maintain their dominance on others. They took on tough teams in earlier matches but always finished on the winning side.
Earlier in the day, they defeated American Smith/Del Sol in the semi-final match. Visiting US tandem suffered the loss in straight sets as Virgen/Ontiveros exhibited stellar performance. The home duo sent 21-16, 21-13 on board to claim 2-0 victory, which enabled them to reserve a berth in the final match.
Elsewhere, Cuban Gonzalez/Piña launched power on Rodriguez/Haddock of Puerto Rico in the second semi-final. They defeated the Puerto Rican counterparts in a three-set match. Comparatively saying, it was quite different match than the first semi-final. Puerto Ricans staged a close competition with Caribbean duo but dropped the decision with only narrow margin. Cubans claimed 2-1 (21-19, 26-28, 15-13) win over Puerto Rico to reach the final match of the tournament.
Team from Puerto Rico failed to qualify for the final match but managed to claim the bronze ware. In the bronze-medal match, they overcame American David Smith and Skylar Del Sol. The match ended in just one set as one of the US players got injured and match ended in Puerto Rico’s favour.
Next up, the beach volleyball tandems will return to action at the VII NORCECA Beach Circuit stop in Varadero, Cuba. The next tournament is scheduled to take place from June 8 to 10. Furthermore, it will be followed by the finals of the Beach Continental Cup in Mazatlan, Mexico. The final leg of the Continental Cup will be held from June 19 to 23 and it will send the successful duos to the 2012 London Olympic Games.
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