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MIAMI, Florida, July 3, 2009.-
The Dominican Republic made a sensational
comeback to beat Puerto Rico in a five-set
thriller advancing to the gold medal match of
the Eighth Women’s Pan American Cup.
The defending champions recovered
from two sets down and a four-point deficit
(18-14) in the third frame to secure their fifth
appearance in the finals of this qualifier to
the FIVB World Grand Prix. The score was 34-36,
22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-9.
Bethania de la Cruz and Prisilla
Rivera paced the Dominican attack with 25 and 19
points respectively. Lisvel Eve contributed 12,
Milagros Cabral added 11 and Annerys Vargas
chipped in eight points.
Puerto Rican Aurea Cruz, the
leading scorer of the competition, recorded 20
points and Karina Ocasio added 20. Sarai Alvarez
and Sheila Ocasio scored 17 and 12 respectively.
The Dominican blocking was
superior to that of its opponent (13-7) and
Puerto Rico had an advantage in the serves
category with 11 aces against 9 by the winners.
“We started playing very well but
then our game slowed down with many errors,”
said Marcos Kwiek. “But the most important thing
is that we recovered in time to make the come
back.”
“We lost a big opportunity to win
the match,” said Carlos Cardona, the coach of
Puerto Rico. “We knew that in order to win it
was necessary to make lesser errors than them
and that was not the case at the end of the
match.”
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