Mexico joins Cuba in the final showdown of U 19 NORCECA Championship – Volleyball News
The young guns of Mexico demonstrated a spectacular show of volleyball in the semi-final match against Puerto Rico on Friday night.
The two teams met at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento sports hall in Tijuana, Mexico. The hosts launched power over Puerto Ricans and ended the affair in straight sets of 3-0 (25-11, 25-14, 25-16). Three Mexican players including the team captain Mauricio Lopez went into double-figure score, which really helped the team to win the match. On the other hand, visiting Puerto Rican team displayed a poor performance as none of the players could cross the single digits. Furthermore, they gave out 28 points to Mexico on errors.
In the next run, Mexico will take on Cuba in the final showdown of the U 19 NORCECA Men’s Continental Volleyball Championship on Saturday. Likewise, Puerto Rico will join United States in the classification match for third position in the tournament. The bronze medal match will also take place on Saturday.
Let’s have a little rundown on the match that led Mexico to the final stage of the tournament.
Equipped with the emotional support of local fans, Mexico picked up a good start in the match. The trio of Enrique Ugalde, Mauricio López, and Geiser Mejía was simply on fire. They directed their shots in the gaps and tallied consecutive points. Puerto Rico suffered the set-back in the first frame as Mexico posted 25-11 on board.
Mexicans continued with success in the following two sets, whereas Puerto Rico failed to come out of the blues. Eventually, Mexico marched away with 3-0 victory and booked a seat in the final match of the NORCECA Continental Championship.
Mentor of Puerto Rican team Carlos Rodriguez was surprise by the wonderful performance of Mexican team. He praised their great effort and congratulated them for victory. He stated: “In eleven years as a coach in this category I have never seen a mexican team well tactically built, congratulations to Mexico. They also controlled the ball very well and we will try to get the medal and the second ticket to the world championship.”
The Mexican coach Oscar Licea responded to his counterpart’s comments in the following manner: “This is the fruit of hard work. We have many years working with this boys, they have shown a very mature attitude and we will apply a good strategy in the final against Cuba.”
The winning skipper Mauricio Lopez shared the similar thoughts like his coach. He wished luck to Puerto Rico for the upcoming match against United States.
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