Puerto Rico close with victory over Cuba in straight sets

CORDOBA, Mexico, November 27, 2014 - Puerto Rico beat Cuba in the last match of the preliminary round of Pool B at XXII Central American and Caribbean Games.

Puerto Rico won in straight sets 25-19, 25-23 and 27-25.

Hector Soto tallied 15 points for Puerto Rico, while Juan Figueroa finished with 14 and Maurice Torres with 13.

Javier Jiménez scored 19 points and Osmany Uriarte 13 for Cuba, that surrendered 24 points by error, while Puerto Rico gave up 27. Puerto Rico finished 8-5 in blocks and 6-4 in aces, including four by Maurice Torres.

“We took the best from the mistakes made by Cuba, and we expect to continue with this positive row of winning matches,” said Puerto Rican captain, Hector Soto.

 “We were not concentrated. These are the kind of mistakes that we shall not make, so we must work harder to improve,” Rolando Cepeda, captain of Cuba said.

“Congratulations to Puerto Rico, they played very well. We could not closet he sets. Puerto Rico showed their experience and we with our mistakes got the consequences, but tomorrow there will be another match to keep going with our goal and also to correct those mistakes and go on with the team,” Rodolfo Sánchez, coach of Cuba remarked.

“We are very happy with the victory. Mentally we came very well focused. They made a lot of mistakes and we took the best from them. However we still have to be more consistent,” David Aleman, coach of Puerto Rico, established.