Cuba and Puerto Rico are semi finalists in Colombia

CARTAGENA, Colombia, July 26, 2006.- Cuba and Puerto Rico advanced to the semi finals of the men’s volleyball tournament at the Central American and Caribbean Games after finishing with unbeaten records in the preliminary pool play.

Cuba blanked Dominican Republic to win Pool A, and Puerto Rico defeated Colombia in straight sets to take first place in Pool B. They will rest on Thursday, while Dominican Republic meets Colombia and Venezuela faces Mexico.

The Cubans established their serve and block game and neutralized the Dominican attack in the victory 25-14, 25-18, 25-19. The Puerto Ricans had the same pattern in their win by score of 25-15, 25-23 y 25-18.

“We knew we would be facing an emerging team that knows how to win the big matches, so we came out trying to neutralize them in the early going and we did it,” said Roberto Garcia, the Cuban coach.

Raidel Poey was the best Cuban scorer with 12 points, Yasser Portuondo contributed 11 and Osmany Juantorena added 10. Elvis Contreras amassed 10 points and Jose Caceres added 9 for Dominican Republic.

Puerto Rico beat Colombia 25-15, 25-23, 25-18 with Luis Rodríguez scoring 10 points and José Rivera and Alexis Matías each contributing 9 points. Jaime Viafara had 10 points and Liberman Agamez added 8 for Colombia.

“Colombia plays hard so we tried and achieved our goal of playing fundamental game,” said Luis Ruiz, the Puerto Rican coach. “Today we attacked freely and it took Colombia out of their rhythm.”

“When we lost the second set, I started to think in the game against Dominican Republic tomorrow,” said Colombian coach Harold Carnaval. “So I rested my players.”

After two big losing efforts, finally Mexico got a break and defeated Trinidad & Tobago 25-17, 25-22, 25-18. Ivan Contreras and Gustavo Meyer had 12 and 11 points respectively for Mexico while Nolan Tash amassed 17 points for the Trinidadians.

“Now is when the big matches are coming,” said Contreras. “You can expect big things from our team.”

In the other match on Wednesday, Venezuela defeated Barbados 25-13, 25-18, 25-19 with Carlos Luna and Carlos Tejeda scoring 10 points apiece.

Pool A: Cuba (3-0), Dominican Republic (2-1), Mexico (1-2), Trinidad & Tobago (0-3). Pool B: Puerto Rico (3-0), Venezuela (2-1), Colombia (1-2), Barbados (0-3).