Venezuela stays in contention for fifth place defeating Panama
GATINEAU, Canada, June 16, 2011 - Maximo Montoya scored 14
points to lead Venezuela to a 25-20, 25-13, 25-15 victory over
Panama in a consolation quarterfinal match on Thursday at the
Pan American Cup men’s volleyball tournament.
With the victory Venezuela advances to the consolation semifinal
to play one of the championship quarterfinal losers on Friday.
Meanwhile Panama will play for ninth place on Friday against the
loser of the consolation quarterfinal between the Dominican
Republic and the Bahamas.
Jhoser Contreras and Kevin Pinerua each scored 12 for
Venezuela. Panama’s top scorer was captain Ricardo Brown with
nine.
‘’It was an important win for us,’’ said Venezuela’s head coach
Idolo Herrera. ‘’Panama has good players who know how to move.
But our defence was like a wall and Panama couldn’t get
through.’’
‘’We had fun tonight,’’ added Pinerua. ‘’It was an intense match
and we are finding our rhythm now.’’
‘’We were hoping for better,’’ said Panama’s coach Sergio
Ballestas. ‘’The first set was tight but then we made too many
errors.’’
‘’We used up a lot of energy in our last match against Bahamas
and it showed today,’’ added Brown. |