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Mexico improves 2-0 defeating Puerto Rico

DURANGO, Mexico, August 19, 2021.- Mexico improved their record 2-0 defeating Puerto Rico 3-1 (20-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-18) in pool A at the Men’s NORCECA Continental Championship in Durango, Mexico.

Led by outside hitter Josué López with 20 points on 14 kills, 3 blocks and 3 aces, Mexico came back from losing the first set and snatching an important win to remain the only unbeaten team in pool A.

Also contributing in Mexico’s victory, opposite Diego Gonzalez contributed with 16 points all on kills and outside hitter Jorge Hernández collected 11 points on 8 kills and 3 blocks.

Opposite Gabriel García led Puerto Rico with 18 points on 15 attacks and 3 aces, followed by middle blocker Pedro Nieves and outside hitter Pedro Molina with 7 points each.

Despite allowing 40 points on unforced errors, Mexico’s 12-1 huge margin in blocks was crucial, along with 48-40 advantage in attacks and 6-4 in serves. Puerto Rico limited their errors to 29 points.

Josué López, top scorer of Mexico: “The difference between the first set and the rest of the match was our serves, they were lazy and we also committed receiving errors. We were able to make some damage with our serves from the second set further and that helped us a lot. Tomorrow we close pool-play and our goal is to finish first, we will work hard to beat Canada, and we are not giving up”.

Jorge Azair, Coach of Mexico: “Puerto Rico started serving really strong in the first set and we weren’t able to respond. We settled down, we didn’t ask them to receive perfectly, we adjusted to their best shots and we solved with our outside hitters, and we also responded with serves. I am really glad for this group, they are really young and proving they can go far doing important things”.

Gabriel García, top scorer of Puerto Rico: “Mexico improved after the first set; we were looking to find our rhythm for moments but things didn’t turn in our favor. We have won win and one loss, that makes come down from our cloud and keep us settled, humble and focused on analyzing this game and find out what went wrong”.

Mexico (2-0) resumes pool-play on Friday against Canada (1-1) and Puerto Rico (1-1) facing Trinidad and Tobago (0-2).