USA seizes gold medal victory at the Women’s U18 Continental Championship – Volleyball News
Under-18 girls’ volleyball teams from USA and Dominican Republic came into stride in the gold medal match of the NORCECA Continental Championship this past weekend. The American musketeers proved to be better and stamped 3-1 (21-25, 25-17, 25-23, 25-15)
win over Dominicans.
The final showdown of the tournament took place in Tijuana, Mexico. Americans were crowned with gold whereas Dominicans were awarded with silver-ware. However, both teams earned tickets to next year’s FIVB Women’s U18 World Championship, scheduled to be
played in Thailand.
Dominican Republic opened the match in a great fashion and delivered powerful serves, while US team responded in the same tone and defended well. Both teams displayed good action on the net and traded lead. After the second technical timeout, Dominican squad
rallied consecutive points and left the Americans behind. They went on front (1-0) by winning opening frame at 25-21.
In the next set, raged-up US team came up with heavy strike of volleys and hit the ball from all angles. Strong offence enabled the team to quickly grab lead and break the tempo of of Dominican Republic. Eventually, set-2 came successful for USA and game
score tied at 1-1.
Americans extended their lead to 2-1 by winning third set with two points. Dominicans failed to return in the game and dropped the decision after losing fourth frame of the match.
Simone Lee of USA charted team-high 18 points and helped her team to overcome the resilient rival. She was followed by Carli Snyder with 17 points, while Christian Jones contributed 10 points in the win. Snyder was also named the Most Valuable Players (MVP)
of the match.
Dominican Republic dropped the decision, but it had the top-scorer of the match in the form of Brayelin Martínez with 24 points. The duo of Gaila Ceneida González and Natalia Martínez also played well and finished with 12 and 11 points respectively. Dominican
players fought bravely, but luck was not on their side and they lost the match.
Team USA coach Reed Sunahara shared his thoughts after the gold medal win. He stated: “Dominican Republic played very well is a very good team, well coached and fought really hard. I’m very proud of my team. We never gave up. We lost the first set but we
fought. Our defense played better that was the key.”
On the other hand, Dominican Republic coach Ariel Sainz also had his say about the match. He said: “We’ll keep on working to improve all the difficulties we experienced here. The third set was very important. We were so close. USA did a great job and didn’t
make mistakes.”
Tags: