Puerto Rico sweeps US Virgin Islands in a U-19 Championship match – Volleyball news
A Group B match of the NORCECA U-19 Boys’ Continental Championship took place on Wednesday, July 4, 2012 between Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands. The preliminary round of the tournament is currently being hosted by Tijuana, Mexico while the match between
the two sides was played at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento sports hall. A crowd of 150 spectators witnessed the show as Puerto Rico earned a win by making a clean sweep over US Virgin Islands.
Puerto Rico took an hour and 17 minutes to finish the match at the following final set scores: 25-19, 25-15 and 25-21.
The Puerto Rican coach, Carlos Rodriguez, shared his satisfaction with the win by making the following comments, “In this match we regained confidence, we still have some mistakes and some things to correct but are already in qualification zone, go for a
victory in the next round and reach the semifinals, but we also need to improve our transition to reach the level the other teams have shown.”
On the other hand, the coach of US Virgin Islands, Mark Daniel, had the following statement to give at the outcome of the match, “Our captain is sick and it was a big loss for us, we played well at the end, but we need to be more consistent in our play.”
The player with the highest number of points in the match was Thomas Aseah of US Virgin Islands as he kept the pressure on his opponents by putting up 16 points. On the other hand, the most points scored on the Puerto Rican side were 14 by Jose Pagan. Pagan
was helped by his team mate Juan Ruiz Goyco who made his presence felt by adding 11 points.
The first set of the match started off with the Puerto Ricans taking the lead early on but US Virgin Islands was able to close in the gap. However, before US Virgin Islands could gain any sway, the Puerto Ricans extended their advantage and marched ahead
to bag the opening set of the match at 25-19.
The loss of the first set had a dampening effect on the performance of the US Virgin Islands squad and they put in a half hearted effort in the second set that helped Puerto Rico to take an early lead and stretch it further. US Virgin Islands kept trailing
behind as Puerto Rico sped on to secure the second set comfortably at 25-15.
US Virgin Islands revived themselves in the third set of the game and kept the score level for the most part. It seemed as if US Virgin Islands would swing things in their favour but their hopes were smashed as the Puerto Ricans asserted themselves by moving
on to take the lead in the end and finally grab the third set of the game at 25-21.
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