Mexico to meet Dominicans in U-18 semifinals
TIJUANA, Mexico, July 6 2011 - Mexico recovered from the loss
against Argentina, and defeated Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals
round 3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 28-26) to qualify to the semifinals of
the U-18 Girls Pan American Cup.
Mexico, whose best scorers were Samantha Bricio, with 18 points,
and Lizbeth Sainz, with 11, will match Dominican Republic in the
semifinal on Thursday at 8:00 PM, local time. Puerto Rico’s
Pilar Marie Victoria and Kanisha Jimenez, finished with 12 and
10 units respectively.
Both teams engaged in a very tough match at the beginning. The
host team came from behind to take the first set with a strong
and powerful work by Bricio, who converted the key points. “We
failed a lot of services on the first set but we were into the
game with a lot of enthusiasm,” said Mexico’s captain Alicia
Castro.
“We could not dominate our pass, and that was important,” stated
Jizzyan Gesualdo. “We had up to 5 or 6 points of advantage, but
in the end we also failed in the reception,” said Puerto Rico’s
coach Eric Gonzalez.
Meanwhile, for Victor Garcia this was a “beautiful match in
which sometimes you are up in the score, but at the same time,
you also fell down, and miss the chance to win. It happens at
this level, We had some faults on the third set, but were
fortunate to recover”.
