Dominicans prevail in battle against Puerto Rico

COLORADO SPRINGS, USA, August 22, 2019 – The Dominican Republic women came out with the 3-2 (17-25, 25-20, 25-21, 27-25, 15-13) win after a battle with Puerto Rico at the NORCECA Champions Cup on Thursday at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center.

The Dominican Republic led in blocks (17-4). Jineiry Martinez, Candida Arias and Gaila Gonzalez each collected four blocks. The Dominican Republic also scored 34 points on Puerto Rico errors while committing 28.

Puerto Rico led in attacks (69-54) and aces (5-2). Puerto Rico’s Paulina Prieto Cerame led all scorers with 23 points on a match-high 21 attacks, one block and one ace. Puerto Rico’s Stephanie Enright added 20 points including 19 kills.

Martinez led the Dominican Republic with 17 points.

Dominican Captain Niverka Marte: “We’re not used to playing with this team. We have a lot of young girls, so I think we had a lack of confidence at the beginning. But then we got our confidence back and tried to be aggressive and don’t think about what we have, just play.”

Thoughts handling nerves in fifth set

“It’s kind of difficult to play here because it’s very high, and I cannot breathe that well. And to play five sets is not easy any time, so today was double difficult because playing five sets against any team is not easy. We just tried to keep our concentration high.”

Dominican Head Coach Marcos Kwiek: “Considering this is our first time playing in this tournament, we did pretty good. At first we were messing up a little bit but at the end they did pretty well. They have some improving to do.”

After losing first set, did he have to make changes?

“They did it on their own. They’re young girls. They needed a minute to get their heads into the game and get it together.”

Puerto Rico Assistant Coach Oswald Antonetti: “We fought pretty well. We were disciplined. We had a game plan, we executed the game plan. Dominican Republic is very physical and they have a big tradition of playing against Puerto Rico, so it was a battle. It was a drama and I thought it was good for the tournament overall. We’re going to keep competing.”