Puerto Rico claims 15th position in FIVB Boys' Youth Volleyball World Championship
The Puerto Ricans had not won a single match in the FIVB Boys' Youth Volleyball World Championship 2011 but things changed on August 28th as they competed with the Tunisians for the 15th position in the tournament. The Puerto Ricans
were able to hand out a defeat to the Tunisians by securing the match at 3-1.
Despite the fact that Tunisia lost the match, they did not go down without putting up a commendable fight. The first set started off with both teams locked together in an intense struggle to gain control but Puerto Rico was able to win the frame in the end.
The second set remained competitive too but Puerto Rico moved up ahead in the end to grab another win. The loss of the first two sets got the Tunisians to step up their game and secure themselves the third set in the process. The fourth set got competitive
and stayed tight till the very end when the Puerto Ricans won the frame at the following final set scores: 26-24, 25-22, 21-25 and 25-23.
The coach of the Puerto Rican team, Ramon Lawrence, made the following comments at the press conference after the match had reached its close: "It was healthy to win today, we needed and wished that. This championship is a great experience for us."
Whereas the Tunisian coach, Hichem Ben Romdhane, expressed himself by stating, “It's a big disappointment to be the last team. But I hope to gain experience about it.”
The Puerto Ricans got the lead early on at 8-4 but Tunisia did not let them go ahead and tied the match at 11-11. By the time the second technical time out was reached, the Puerto Ricans still had the lead at 16-14. Eventually, the set reached a tie at 24-24
but ended in favour of the Puerto Ricans at 26-24.
The second set saw the Tunisians leading at 8-3 but Puerto Rico was able to come up from behind and get the advantage at 16-13. The match remained competitive until the end with Puerto Rico finally bagging a win at 25-22.
Tunisia got the lead in the third set at the first and second technical time outs at 8-5 and 16-12 respectively. The Puerto Ricans closed in the gap at 22-20 but could not destabilise the Tunisians who went on to win the frame at 25-21.
The fourth set was tied at 19-19 but the Puerto Ricans were able to end it on their terms by winning it at 25-23.
The top scorer in the match was the Puerto Rican player , Angel Perez, with a total of 20 points while the lead scorer on the Tunisian side was Malek Chekir as he tallied 13 points.
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