Puerto Rico completes second round with victory over Algeria in Pool H - Volleyball
The second round of the 2011 FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship finished its run on Thursday, August 18. A total of eight matches were played among the participants of the campaign. Ankara and Baskent Halls in the Turkish city of Ankara hosted the matches.
Girls from Puerto Rico and Algeria contested their game skills in Pool H.
In the last two matches of the second round, Puerto Rico suffered a set-back thanks to Mexico and Italy with close margins. However, they managed to shake off the bad impression on third day and defeated Algeria in three sets. Puerto Rico was given better
status over Algeria as they sent 3-0 (25-15, 25-15, and 25-21) on the board.
Puerto Rico took a start in the match through serves by No. 5 player Castro Lucia. She put away the ball at great speed and gave a good start to her team. Likewise, Puerto Rico’s big gun, Daly Santana, came into action and showed her attacking power. Algeria
didn’t offer great resistance to their opponents and trailed behind at the first technical timeout by 6-8. As the game continued, the Puerto Ricans attempted more attacks and took the score to 16-11 at the next technical break. Algerian team was restricted
to a low score of 15 in the first set while Puerto Rico achieved first-set wins by posting 25-15.
Belhocine Serra of Algeria started the attack in the second set. Puerto Rico relied on Hernandez Alba to offer solid blocking to Serra’s shots. Algeria’s spiker managed to steal points from their opponents and put her team in the lead by 5-3. Puerto Rico’s
Marie Victoria helped the team with good attacks and tricky bump-passes. Puerto Rico was able to catch up with the opponents at 8-6. Once they picked up the lead, they did not stop until the set-points. Despite a good start in the second set, Algeria could
not tie the score in the second set and Puerto Rico successfully extended its lead to 2-0.
Third set was full of action as Algeria was in survival mode while Puerto Rico wanted to put an end to the game. Luck accompanied Puerto Rico as they clinched success by throwing 25-21 on board. Algerian squad fought bravely but did not match the performance
of the Puerto Ricans.
In the post-match comments, the Head Coach of Puerto Rico Eric Gonzales mentioned, "For us our team has been improving day by day, match by match. Our service is better now and our attack is better too - we used it to win the game today. All the teams come
here to learn something from each other, and we also have learned something from each team and from Algeria as well. We came to World championship for this reason… to improve."
Daly Santana, who played a great role in Puerto Rico’s victory said, "We did pretty well. Our pass and reception was very good. In the previous matches we had some problems with our services but today we did it well. So that is why we won."
After the crucial win, Puerto Rico settled in third position and Algeria had to be content with the last spot in Pool H.
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