Aurea Cruz celebrates homecoming with historic mark

TRUJILLO ALTO, Puerto Rico, March 2, 2020 – The legendary Aurea Cruz needed just five matches after her return to the Puerto Rican Volleyball League to leave her mark in the competition as the 38-year-old outside hitter scored her 2,000th point in the national league on Sunday.

Cruz needed 15 points to reach the milestone and she scored that number as her team, Amazonas de Trujillo, defeated Indias de Mayagüez 3-0 (26-24, 25-23, 25-23) at the Coliseo Rubén Zayas Montañez. The result moved the team to the sixth place in the standings with three wins and two losses.

The 2020 season saw Cruz return to the Puerto Rican league after 14 years playing overseas in Spain, Korea, Azerbaijan and Italy, where she also topped the 2,000-point mark. She’s starting just her fifth season in the national league - in her other four she featured for Llaneras de Toa Baja, who will be Amazonas’ next opponents on Tuesday.

Since her return, Cruz has been the prolific scorer she used to be during several years for the Puerto Rican national team, scoing 89 points in five matches with Amazonas, averaging almost 18 per contest. 

The veteran outside hitter was part of the roster that represented Puerto Rico in the country’s only Olympic appearance at the Rio 2016 Games. Cruz, who has more than 150 international matches under her belt, saw the court in all of the team’s five matches and was their second-best scorer with 33 points.