Thrilling win of Puerto Rico over Peru

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, July 5, 2011 - Puerto Rico reached the quarterfinals at the 10th Pan American Women’s Cup by defeating Peru 3-1 (25-15, 25-21, 31-33 25-13) to finish with a 3-2 win-loss in Pool B.

A solid Puerto Rico team had an exceptional performance finishing third advancing to a match with Cuba in the quarterfinals. Peru couldn’t react to Puerto Ricans combination of offensive and defensive power and concluded with a 2-3 mark.

Sarai Alvarez topped Puerto Rico contributing with impressive 25 points along with Aury Cruz who scored 19. Puerto Rico outplayed Peru in blocks by 11-9. Best player for Peru with 11 points was Mirtha Uribe.

“We studied Peru well and we had a great game, in the third set Peru was splendid,” said Vilmarie Mojica as Puerto Rico continues on to the next round.

Peru’s Diana Soto said: “This was a very difficult day for us, full of errors and I really couldn’t recognize my team.”

Puerto Rico’s coach, David Aleman said: “Peru adjusted well in the third set but we were able to build up our strength and win the match. Now we must prepare for the next round but I believe the strongest opponents were in this group”.

Italian coach for Peru, Luca Cristofani, commented: “I am not pleased with the result, but we had to use a substitute player for Claudia Rueda and our attack was weak. “