Puerto Rico heads off to semi-finals of NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship - Volleyball
A Pool A match of the NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship took place on September 14 between Puerto Rico and Mexico. The venue of the competition was the Hector Sola Bezares Coliseum in Caguas, Puerto Rico. By the time the match had reached its close,
the Puerto Rican home team was celebrating their clean sweep over the Mexicans.
The first two sets of the match were dominated by the Puerto Ricans as the Mexicans found it hard to get into the flow and play against the raised odds of battling the home team. Starting the third set with a loss of the first two got the Mexicans to step
up their game and they were able to put up quite a challenge to the Puerto Ricans. However, the confidence generated by winning the first two sets of the match led the Puerto Ricans to a match win at 25-16, 25-18 and 28-26.
The coach of the Puerto Rican team, David Aleman, made the following comments at the press conference after his team had won the match: “It was a good game for us during the first two sets and then we slowed down a little with our serves and Mexico improved
its game.”
On the other hand, the Mexican coach, Mario Herrera, expressed himself in these words: “We really need more international competitions and this group started with the Pan American Cup. We were close to winning the set but came up short.”
The Puerto Ricans were able to outclass the Mexicans in almost every aspect of the game but they were most active in the serve department. The Puerto Ricans were able to tally seven more serves than the Mexicans at 8-1.
The first set of the game started off with both teams almost neck to neck with each other but before long, the Puerto Ricans were able to move ahead as they got a morale boost from the packed gym. As the match progressed, the Mexicans fell behind and the
Puerto Ricans got an easy win at 25-16.
The second set saw the Mexicans step up their game a little but after the middle stages they fell to making errors and eventually lost the set. The third set featured quite a few lead changes but eventually went the way of the Puerto Ricans at 28-26.
The top scorer of the match was the Puerto Rican player, Aury Cruz, with a total of 20 points while the lead scorer from the Mexican side was Claudia Rios as she was able to tally 13 points for her team.
The recent win has given Puerto Rico entry into the semi-final round of the competition. The other team that has made it to the final four is Cuba.
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