Dominican Republic advance directly to semifinals

CORDOBA, Mexico, November 27, 2014 - Dominican Republic clinched the first place in Pool A and advance directly to the semifinals of Men’s Volleyball tournament at the XXII Central American and Caribbean Games.

The Dominican squad beat in straight sets Trinidad and Tobago 25-14 , 25-15 , 25-15, with a solid performance by Luis Adames, who tallied 14 points, including three aces. On the Trinidadian side, captain Nolan Tash closed with 9 points. Dominican Republic worked their service and their blocking game to make a big difference (10-1 in blocks and 8-1 in aces).

“We used our regular lineup to open this match in order to avoid any difficulty or any issue. There is an equal level of game, you cannot take anything for granted. When you get the results you are glad, but when you don’t you have to analyze why. Probably Trinidad and Tobago did not play at their best, but they are a team of warriors. I had to work with everybody on the court,” said Jose Alvarez Coutino, coach of Dominican Republic.

“We tried to focus to play each point, I think we could have done it better, however we have still two more games left ,” said Gideon Dickson, coach of Trinidad and Tobago.

“Today Dominican Republic played a good match. I want to congratulate Elvis for such a great effort. We played flat, but still expect to get the best from every match at the tournament, I still have two matches left before I decide to retire,” Nolan Tash, captain of Trinidad and Tobago said.

“We achieved one goal, that was to qualify to the next round as first place in our pool. It was not easy, because we faced Mexico at their home and with group of fans that get pretty excited. We did it, and now we will look for our next goal that is to compete for a medal”, Dominican captain, Elvis Contreras, concluded.