Puerto Rico claims bronze medal of Group 2

VARNA, Bulgaria, June 19, 2016 - Puerto Rico won the bronze in Group 2 of FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix 2016 after disappointing the home crowd in Varna with a 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-23) victory over Bulgaria in the third-place match at FIVB World Grand Prix Group 2 on Sunday.

Puerto Rico returned to the winning track after losing to the Dominican Republic in the semifinal match. It was the only loss for the bronze medalists in eight outings.

Karina Ocasio rose to the occasion and hammered out 27 points for the winning side, supported with 19 points (5 aces) by teammate Aurea Cruz. Lynda Morales added 11 points in the victory.

Emiliya Nikolova topped Bulgaria with 19 points, followed by Eva Yaneva and Miroslava Paskova who finished with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Juan Carlos Nunez, coach of Puerto Rico: “We knew that it was going to be a hard game. We were able to hold up and play well on the receiving side and at the end we were able to close the match and come out with the victory.”

Yarimar Rosa, captain of Puerto Rico: “At the beginning we could not handle the service really well and we were not able to just manage ourselves at that moment. Then we were able to get ourselves organized and we started pushing them and closed off the match with a win.”